Banned Books Week appeal to Cuba, 2008
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Steve Marquardt
Sep 30, 2008, 12:26:13 PM9/30/08
to Cuba451Letters
Thank you for your ongoing support for the freedom to read in Cuba and
for those imprisoned there for their involvement in independent
libraries.
Below is the current quarterly appeal of their behalf, timed for this
year’s Banned Books Week.
Feel free to customize or personalize the letter with more than your
signature and title.
To send these three pages for 94 cents airmail, print the letter on
both sides of your letterhead or plain paper, and print the list of
organizations on a second sheet of paper.
This appeal will also be posted among the Files and Web pages
available at http://groups.google.com/group/Cuba451Letters.
The next appeal – unless a health emergency intervenes – will come to
you shortly before Human Rights Day, December 10.
Again, I thank you for your expressed support for those imprisoned in
Cuba. Support and the hope that it conveys mean a lot to those
detained for attempting to do what librarians in the USA do every day
– to serve inquiring minds.
Steve R. Marquardt, Ph.D.
South Dakota State University Dean of Libraries Emeritus
Amnesty International USA Legislative Coordinator for Minnesota
9383 123rd Avenue SE
Lake Lillian, MN 56253-4700
(320) 664-4231
marquar...@gmail.com
[Month & Date] 2008
General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra
Vicepresidente del Consejo de Estado y Ministro de Interior
Ministerio del Interior
Plaza de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba
Señor Ministro,
The USA library community this week is celebrating Banned Books Week.
Therefore I wish to take this opportunity to call your attention to
the destruction of books and other materials in independent and
personal libraries in Cuba, as described below by the court verdict
language ordering those destructions.
As a member of the American Library Association, I agree with its
policy statement 53.7, “Destruction of Libraries: The American Library
Association deplores the destruction of libraries, library collections
and property, and the disruption of the educational process by that
act, whether it be done by individuals or groups of individuals and
whether it be in the name of honest dissent, the desire to control or
limit thought or ideas, or for any other purpose.”
The American Library Association has also adopted, as policy 58.4,
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has
the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media regardless of
frontiers.”
The managers of the libraries listed below remain imprisoned in Cuba,
despite their nonviolent civic activities and their status as
prisoners of conscience whose freedom has been requested by the
numerous prestigious organizations and individuals listed on the
attached “Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library
Workers and other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September
2008.”
I join these international calls for the immediate and unconditional
release of the individuals named below, and also the release of all
the independent library volunteers arrested and sentenced in March and
April of 2003, and the release of other previously or subsequently
detained nonviolent prisoners of conscience associated with
independent libraries.
Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya of the General Pedro Betancourt Library
in Matanzas: “. . . los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados,
impresos y firmados y grabados los cuales también se detallan con
antelación serán destruido mediante su incineración oportuna.” Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm
Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez of the 20th of May Library in Sancti
Spiritus: “Asimismo se dispone la destrucción …” Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm.
Iván Hernandez Carrillo of the Juan Gualberto Gómez Library, Branch
II, in Matanzas: “Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen
filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración
oportuna.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
Carmelo Augustín Diaz Fernandez of the Biblioteca sindical Emilio
Máspero in Havana: “En cuanto a los documentos, revistas, apuntes,
libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones, pegatinas, propagandas,
procédase a su destrucción.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm.
Luis Milán Fernandez of the 11th of September Library in Santiago de
Cuba: “Los álbumes y los restantes documentos bibliográficos,
consistentes en libros, revistas y folletos, destrúyase por su escaso
valor …” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm.
Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, alias "Puchungo", of the Bartolomé
Masó Library in Santiago de Cuba: “En cuanto a Ios bienes ocupados al
acusado LEONEL GRAVE DE PERALTA ALMENARES se dispone el comiso de toda
la literatura y documentos, y su destrucción mediante el método de
incineración.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm.
Pedro Argüelles Moran, whose personal and private collection was
ordered to be destroyed:
“… todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos,
entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción. Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm.
José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, whose personal and private collection of
a “great amount of books” was sent to an incinerator: “Se dispone
además la incineración de … todos los libras, folletos, revistas,
boletines, agendas, hojas de apuntes, cartones con tarjetas de
presentación y otras;” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm
Señor Ministro, again I urge you to release immediately and
unconditionally these and other individuals associated with
independent libraries. I am sure that you are aware that their civil-
minded energies would be useful in restoring Cuba and serving Cuban
readers following the unfortunate devastation caused by Hurricanes
Gustav and Ike.
I thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Enclosure: “Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library
Workers and other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September
2008.”
[ON SECOND SHEET:]
Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library Workers and
other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September 2008
Dates and links to specific statements asking for the prisoners’
release are available at
http://groups.google.com/group/Cuba451Letters/web/organizations-calling-for-release-of-the-cuban-library-workers.
179 American leftists, in a Letter to New York Review of Books, vol.
L, no. 19 (Dec. 4, 2003), p. 62.
Amnesty International
Association for International Affairs (Czech Republic)
Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech
Republic
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Christian Democrat International
Committee to Protect Journalists
Commonwealth Press Union
English PEN
Estonian Librarians Association
European Union Council
European Union External Relations Commissioner
European Union Presidency
Freedom House
French Communist Party
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
German Bundestag Commission of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid
Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
Inter American Press Association
International Association of Broadcasting
International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, including former
presidents or prime ministers of Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia
and Canada
International Federation for Human Rights, a.k.a. FIDH: La Fédération
internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (1 July 2003)
International League for Human Rights
International PEN
International Press Institute
International Society for Human Rights (Germany)
Italian legislature
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights Liberal
International
Lech Walesa and Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal daily
Library Association of Latvia
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
North American Broadcasters Association
Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights
Pax Christi of the Netherlands
People in Need (Czech Republic)
Physicians for Human Rights
Polish Librarians Association National Congress of Delegates
Pontis Foundation (Slovakia)
Reporters Without Borders
Socialist International
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
World Association of Newspapers
World Council of Churches, General Secretary
World Press Freedom Committee
for those imprisoned there for their involvement in independent
libraries.
Below is the current quarterly appeal of their behalf, timed for this
year’s Banned Books Week.
Feel free to customize or personalize the letter with more than your
signature and title.
To send these three pages for 94 cents airmail, print the letter on
both sides of your letterhead or plain paper, and print the list of
organizations on a second sheet of paper.
This appeal will also be posted among the Files and Web pages
available at http://groups.google.com/group/Cuba451Letters.
The next appeal – unless a health emergency intervenes – will come to
you shortly before Human Rights Day, December 10.
Again, I thank you for your expressed support for those imprisoned in
Cuba. Support and the hope that it conveys mean a lot to those
detained for attempting to do what librarians in the USA do every day
– to serve inquiring minds.
Steve R. Marquardt, Ph.D.
South Dakota State University Dean of Libraries Emeritus
Amnesty International USA Legislative Coordinator for Minnesota
9383 123rd Avenue SE
Lake Lillian, MN 56253-4700
(320) 664-4231
marquar...@gmail.com
[Month & Date] 2008
General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra
Vicepresidente del Consejo de Estado y Ministro de Interior
Ministerio del Interior
Plaza de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba
Señor Ministro,
The USA library community this week is celebrating Banned Books Week.
Therefore I wish to take this opportunity to call your attention to
the destruction of books and other materials in independent and
personal libraries in Cuba, as described below by the court verdict
language ordering those destructions.
As a member of the American Library Association, I agree with its
policy statement 53.7, “Destruction of Libraries: The American Library
Association deplores the destruction of libraries, library collections
and property, and the disruption of the educational process by that
act, whether it be done by individuals or groups of individuals and
whether it be in the name of honest dissent, the desire to control or
limit thought or ideas, or for any other purpose.”
The American Library Association has also adopted, as policy 58.4,
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has
the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media regardless of
frontiers.”
The managers of the libraries listed below remain imprisoned in Cuba,
despite their nonviolent civic activities and their status as
prisoners of conscience whose freedom has been requested by the
numerous prestigious organizations and individuals listed on the
attached “Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library
Workers and other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September
2008.”
I join these international calls for the immediate and unconditional
release of the individuals named below, and also the release of all
the independent library volunteers arrested and sentenced in March and
April of 2003, and the release of other previously or subsequently
detained nonviolent prisoners of conscience associated with
independent libraries.
Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya of the General Pedro Betancourt Library
in Matanzas: “. . . los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados,
impresos y firmados y grabados los cuales también se detallan con
antelación serán destruido mediante su incineración oportuna.” Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm
Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez of the 20th of May Library in Sancti
Spiritus: “Asimismo se dispone la destrucción …” Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm.
Iván Hernandez Carrillo of the Juan Gualberto Gómez Library, Branch
II, in Matanzas: “Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen
filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración
oportuna.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
Carmelo Augustín Diaz Fernandez of the Biblioteca sindical Emilio
Máspero in Havana: “En cuanto a los documentos, revistas, apuntes,
libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones, pegatinas, propagandas,
procédase a su destrucción.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm.
Luis Milán Fernandez of the 11th of September Library in Santiago de
Cuba: “Los álbumes y los restantes documentos bibliográficos,
consistentes en libros, revistas y folletos, destrúyase por su escaso
valor …” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm.
Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, alias "Puchungo", of the Bartolomé
Masó Library in Santiago de Cuba: “En cuanto a Ios bienes ocupados al
acusado LEONEL GRAVE DE PERALTA ALMENARES se dispone el comiso de toda
la literatura y documentos, y su destrucción mediante el método de
incineración.” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm.
Pedro Argüelles Moran, whose personal and private collection was
ordered to be destroyed:
“… todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos,
entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción. Source:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm.
José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, whose personal and private collection of
a “great amount of books” was sent to an incinerator: “Se dispone
además la incineración de … todos los libras, folletos, revistas,
boletines, agendas, hojas de apuntes, cartones con tarjetas de
presentación y otras;” Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm
Señor Ministro, again I urge you to release immediately and
unconditionally these and other individuals associated with
independent libraries. I am sure that you are aware that their civil-
minded energies would be useful in restoring Cuba and serving Cuban
readers following the unfortunate devastation caused by Hurricanes
Gustav and Ike.
I thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Enclosure: “Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library
Workers and other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September
2008.”
[ON SECOND SHEET:]
Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library Workers and
other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 29 September 2008
Dates and links to specific statements asking for the prisoners’
release are available at
http://groups.google.com/group/Cuba451Letters/web/organizations-calling-for-release-of-the-cuban-library-workers.
179 American leftists, in a Letter to New York Review of Books, vol.
L, no. 19 (Dec. 4, 2003), p. 62.
Amnesty International
Association for International Affairs (Czech Republic)
Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech
Republic
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Christian Democrat International
Committee to Protect Journalists
Commonwealth Press Union
English PEN
Estonian Librarians Association
European Union Council
European Union External Relations Commissioner
European Union Presidency
Freedom House
French Communist Party
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
German Bundestag Commission of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid
Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
Inter American Press Association
International Association of Broadcasting
International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, including former
presidents or prime ministers of Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia
and Canada
International Federation for Human Rights, a.k.a. FIDH: La Fédération
internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (1 July 2003)
International League for Human Rights
International PEN
International Press Institute
International Society for Human Rights (Germany)
Italian legislature
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights Liberal
International
Lech Walesa and Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal daily
Library Association of Latvia
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
North American Broadcasters Association
Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights
Pax Christi of the Netherlands
People in Need (Czech Republic)
Physicians for Human Rights
Polish Librarians Association National Congress of Delegates
Pontis Foundation (Slovakia)
Reporters Without Borders
Socialist International
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
World Association of Newspapers
World Council of Churches, General Secretary
World Press Freedom Committee
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