Trial of Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya of the General Pedro Betancourt Library, in Matanzas, 5 April 2003 [Sentence number 9], available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm. The defendatns had “accumulated printed material of subversive character.” Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003 as footnote (222) Sentence 9/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's Provincial Court, Matanzas, 5 April 2003 (case 7/2003).  Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnotes [88] and [89] of Verdict No. 9 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 5, 2003.

“… the handwritten, typed, printed, signed and recorder [sic] documents which are also detailed in prior paragraphs … will be immediately destroyed by incineration.”  
From the original court record:
“. . . excepto los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados, impresos y firmados y grabados los cuales también se detallan con antelación serán destruido mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:

“several copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”*  

El resurgimiento global de la democracia.  Unknown Binding: 341 pages. Publisher: Insituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]; 1. ed edition (1996). ISBN: 9683649904.  Source for description: Amazon.com

Vista del amanecer en el trópico, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Paperback) Publisher: Penguin Books (March 1, 1997).ISBN: 0140262865.  Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com
[English translation: View of Dawn in the Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine. (London: Faber, 1988) First U.K. Edition. Source for bibliographic description: Alibris.com]

Hacia la gran nación, by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat (Miami, Fl : D'Fana Editions, 1995), 32 p. ; 21 cm.  Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Letters from Burma, by Aung San Suu Kyi and Fergal Keane.

Trial of Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara of the autodenominada Biblioteca Independiente [from sentencing document] of the Unión de Activistas y Opositores "Golfo de Guacanayabo" [from Amnesty International, June 2003], in Santiago de Cuba, 5 April 2003. Case no. 5 of 2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-6e.cfm. Cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [93] Verdict No. 6 delivered by the Santiago de Cuba People’s Provincial Tribunal, April 5, 2003.

“… books, magazines, brochures and the rest of the documents to proceed to destruction by means of incineration for lacking utility; …”
From the original court record:
Se dispone que sobre el negativo fotográfico, el cassete de audio, las medicinas, los libros, revistas, folletos y el resto de los documentos procédase a su destrucción mediante incineración por carecer de utilidad; . . .”

These include the following:

treinta y dos folletos sobre la carta de los derechos humanos (32 pamphlets of the human rights charter)*
TIME (magazine)
El Disidente (magazine)
Fragura (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Por Cuba (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Palestra (“journal … edited in the United States”)
Hispano Cubana (magazine “published in Spain”)

José Martí: la invención de Cuba, by Rafael Rojas. (Paperback) Editorial Colibri (November 20, 2000), 145 pages. ISBN: 8492355069
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Cuba's Repressive Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution, by Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, July 20, 1999). Paperback, 263 pages). ISBN: 1564322343.  Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Buscando un modelo económico en América Latina : mercado, socialista o mixta? : Chile, Cuba y Costa Rica, by Carmelo Mesa-Lago;  Alberto Arenas;  Malena Barro (Caracas, Venezuela : Nueva Sociedad ; [Miami?, Fla.] : Universidad Internacional de la Florida, 2002 1. ed. en castellano. 681 p. ; ISBN: 9803171836 23 cm.
Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Trial of Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez of the 20th of May Library, in Sancti Spiritus (Case number 4), 5 April 2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm. “He is a member of the steering committee of the Proyecto Varela in Sancti Spíritus and director of a private library located in his residence.” – Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003. Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [89] Verdict No. 9 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 5, 2003, which Verdict also stated that he “compiled subversive printed literature; […] circulated that material among his followers, creating a mini library; […] sent information to the mass media …”

“Also the destruction is had [of] …” or “Asimismo se dispone la destrucción de …” numerous documents, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers and books, including the following:

“sixteen books Encounter of the Culture Cuban [etc.]”
Book titles are machine translated from the Spanish as follows:
Encounter of Cuban Culture
Plowing in the Sea
Heating of the Planet
Uses and Abuses of Gasoline
World without Winter
Visual Atlas [of the] Ocean
Destruction of Nature and the Ecology
System of Environmental Average Management

Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba, by Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez.  (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 2000) (Paperback, 328 pages). ISBN: 0822957213
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

“Classic texts of Carlos Franqui” (Dominican Republic, 2001). These could include Family Portrait with Fidel: a Memoir, or Camillo Cienfuegos, Diary of the Cuban Revolution, or Vida, aventuras y desastres de un hombre llamado Castro.  Or it could be the first edition of his Textos críticos del socialismo y la revolución, Edition: 2. ed. [S.l. : s.n.], Rodes Print. Corp.) 2003, ©2002.  159 p. ; 22 cm.
Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (M. E. Sharpe; Paperback Reprint edition, June 1, 1990). ISBN: 0873327616.  Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Reporters Without Borders, Mission report in Cuba.  Probably this is the September 2000 report found at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3213.

Trial of Felix Navarro Rodriguez and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo of the Juan Gualberto Gómez Library (Branch II, Matanzas), in Matanzas, 4 April 2003. Sentence number 2 of 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm, concerning “Literature of subversive [the word occurs eleven times in the court record] content and against the revolutionary process.” Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003 respectively as footnotes (185) and (157), “Sentence 2/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's Provincial Court, Matanzas, 4 April 2003 (case 8/2003). Unofficial translation.” Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 respectively as footnotes [69] and [53] of Verdict No. 2 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 4, 2003.

 “… printed material and other that have films and recording will be immediately destroy [sic] by incineration, which it will also be done with the handwritten and typed documents …”
From the original court record:
“Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:
81 pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights*
un libro con el titulo "Martín Luther King"
Forty and two books of injurious Literature
twenty-two subversive pamphlets
Two books titled "Manual de seguridad e Higiene del trabajo"
60 documents titled "Proyecto Varela"    
300 signed questionnaires of the Project Varela
Four books titled, "Normas Internacionales"
Four books titled "La lucha pacífica por los derechos humanos”
Nine books of religious character.

Trial of Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos and Carmelo Augustín Diaz Fernandez of the Biblioteca sindical Emilio Máspero in Havana, 5 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm.
Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003 respectively as footnotes (109) and (130) Sentence 10/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's provincial Court, Havana, 5 April 2003 (case 13/2003).  Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [22] Verdict No. 10 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 5, 2003.

“As far as documents, magazines, notes, books, agendas, photos, invitations, stickers, propagandas, procédase to their destruction.”
From the original court record:
“En cuanto a los documentos, revistas, apuntes, libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones, pegatinas, propagandas, procédase a su destrucción.”

These included the following:

“. . . books, bulletins magazines, agendas, booksellers of notes, all of subversive content abundant documents, books, correspondence, notes, pamphlets and magazines of content in opposition to the principles of the Cuban Revolution . . .
“With same aim of destruction of regime partner-political prevailing in Cuba, defendant created library ‘Emilio Maspero’ which it contained subversive Literature and contrarrevolucionaria, that was provided by the government and competing groups of the Cuban Revolution, also they created a Web site for the publication of his contrarrevolucionarios postulates the one that could be visited by people of different parts from the world.”

From the original court record:
“Con el mismo fin de destrucción del régimen socio-político imperante en Cuba, los acusados crearon la biblioteca “Emilio Maspero” que contenía literatura subversiva y contrarrevolucionaria, que era suministrada por el gobierno y grupos opositores de la Revolución cubana, asimismo crearon un sitio web para la publicación de sus postulados contrarrevolucionarios el que podía ser visitado por personas de diferentes partes del mundo.”

Trial of Luis Milán Fernandez of the 11th of September Library (Santiago de Cuba) in Santiago trial number 5, on 4 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm. Cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [65] Verdict No. 5 delivered by the Santiago de Cuba People’s Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.

“The albums and the remaining bibliographical, consisting of documents books, magazines and pamphlets, destrúyase by their little value …”
From the original court record:
“Los álbumes y los restantes documentos bibliográficos, consistentes en libros, revistas y folletos, destrúyase por su escaso valor …”

These included the following:

“… the book ‘Martín Luther King against all the exclusions’ [Martín Luther King: Contra todas las exclusiones, (Bilbao: Desclee de Brouwer, 1995) ISBN-13: 978-8433011091], written by Vincent Roussel, whose content is based on ideas that could be used to promote the social disorder and the civil disobedience;"

"… ‘the Hispanic-Cuban’ magazine number four of thousands nine hundred ninety and nine, coined by the call Christian Movement ‘of Liberation’, in which one takes the blame to the Cuban government and his leaders of the economic situation in Cuba and explains like solution to the problematic one …”

“… the denominated ‘Project Varela’ for which it urges the town to a competing mobilization; ‘Vitral’ and ‘Dissidents’, of September and October of year two thousands one, are of revisionist and reformist character, in them a [distorted] analysis becomes of the economy of Cuba on which it is said that possibilities do not exist to develop the personal initiatives and proposes like via solving it, the modernization of the State and the civil society;”

“… the pamphlet ‘Entérate’, that has an incorrect approach of Cuba, denies its democracy and discredits the work of the Revolutionary National Police and the Cuban educative system, criticizes in addition documents to the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba and another pamphlet denominated ‘With Cuban Humor’ … based on jokes against the Cuban Revolution and its leaders, giving an image distorted of this one, in order not to make laugh but to denigrate.”

Trial of Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, alias "Puchungo", of the Bartolomé Masó Library (Santiago de Cuba) in Santiago trial number 7, on 7 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm.  Cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [52] Verdict No. 7 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 7, 2003.

“As far as the goods occupied to defendant LEONEL [GRAVE] DE PERALTA ALMENARES has comiso all Literature and documents, and their destruction by means of the incineration method. El comiso of a receiving radius Tecsun mark model R nine seven zero one, with serial number OAM two zero zero one one zero two three five eight six with headsets and shipper of battery free disposition of the Popular Power of Santiago marks Digitalis, have left of Cuba.”

From the original court record:
“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. EI comiso de un radio receptor marca Tecsun modelo R nueve siete cero uno, con número de serie OAM dos cero cero uno uno cero dos tres cinco ocho seis con audífonos y cargador de batería marca Digital, queden a libre disposición del Poder Popular de Santiago de Cuba.”

Trial of Pedro Argüelles Moran, whose personal and private collection contained “a considerable number of bibliographical volumes of subversive content … to urge the civil disobedience and the disrepute of the revolutionary government,” and Pablo Pacheco Avila, whose personal and private collection contained a “numerous bibliography of noticeable aggressive and harmful character against our country, Literature that was given to him personally by Civil employees of the Office of Interests of the United States of America in City of Havana,” in Ciego de Avila, 4 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm. Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003respectively as footnotes (112) and (188) Sentence 2/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's provincial Court, Ciego de Avila, 4 April 2003 (case 1/2003).  Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 respectively as footnotes [23] and [71] of Verdict No. 2 delivered by the Ciego de Avila People’s Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003

“. . . en el domicilio del acusado de referencia, ocupándole un considerable número de volúmenes bibliográficos de contenido subversivo, que de forma general llevan el mensaje de incitar a la desobediencia civil y el descrédito del gobierno revolucionario . . .”
“… all the publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department of the Interior for its destruction.”
From the original court record:
“El instrumental estomatológico, entregarse al Sectorial Provincial de Salud de Camagüey, así como los medicamentos; todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción. Todos los equipos y medios electrónicos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior, ya que su complejidad [sic] técnica no hace que sea prudente su empleo en ninguna otra actividad.”

These include the following, as listed in the sentencing document:

Jose Martí, The Invention of Cuba
book "Letters to Elpidio";
book Conquista of the Nature;
book Your Body is Yours;
book Contemporary Universal History;
history of the United States;
book the Cost of the Terrorism in Human Suffering;
book Foundations of the Media;
book Technical of Education of the Media;
book Journalism and Creativity;
two books of International Human rights;
book a More Effective and Less Expensive Government;
book History of the United States;
book titled Manual for the Journalists;
book Evidence that demands a Verdict;
titled book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II;
two books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
book the Constitution of the United States;
6 declarations of the Human rights;
two universal declarations of the Human rights; *
a pamphlet of the Project Varela;
“libro Martín Luther King”;
“a titled magazine the Movement of the Human rights and the legacy of Martín Luther King.”

Trial of José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, known by "Pepín." Santiago de Cuba trial number one, on 3 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm. Cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [70] Verdict No. 5 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 5, 2003.

Not an independent library, but a private collection of a “great amount of books, magazines, articles, pamphlets and other publications as well as numerous cassettes of video and of audio . . . whose content is eminently subversive and contrarrevolucionario.”
“The incineration to . . . all the [books], pamphlets, magazines, bulletins, agendas, leaves of notes, cardboards with business cards and others; fotocopiados documents, diplomas, . . . notebooks with annotations, and all the obrantes [workings] in folios.”

Trial of Claro Sanchez Altarriba, Santiago de Cuba trial number 3, on 4 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-3e.cfm.  A personal and private collection.  Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003 as footnote (218) Sentence 3/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's Provincial Court, Santiago de Cuba, 4 April 2003 (case 3/2003).  Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [87] Verdict No. 3 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 4, 2003.

 “The destruction by means of the method is had incineration of: … fifty and four pamphlets, three magazines, eighty and two writings and denunciations, two acts, forty documents, four steering wheels, twenty-nine information and of thirty and three listings and groups.”

Trial of Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, Colegio de Periodistas Independientes, 4 April 2003, in Camagüey, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-camaguey-1e.cfm. Cited by Amnesty International report of 3 June 2003 as footnote “(158) Sentence 1/2003, Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's Provincial Court, Camagüey, 4 April 2003 (case 2/2003). Unofficial translation.”  Also cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [54] Verdict No. 1 delivered by the Camagüey People’s Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.

Although not affiliated with an independent library, his books were ordered destroyed nonetheless: “. . . one hundred fifty and seven publications and other materials … all the publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department of the Interior for its destruction.”
From the original court document:
“… todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción.” Source http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-camaguey-1s.cfm

Trial of Jesús Mustafá Felipe, Santiago de Cuba trial number 7, on 7 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm.  Cited by the OAS report of 21 October 2006 as footnote [68] Verdict No. 7 delivered by the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 7, 2003.

“As far as … goods occupied to the defendant JESUS MUSTAFA FELIPE … all [confiscated] Literature and documents, and their destruction by means of the incineration method.”
From the original court document: “En cuanto a Ios bienes ocupados al acusado JESUS MUSTAFA FELIPE, se dispone el comiso de toda la literatura y documentos, y su destrucción mediante el método de incineración.”

OTHER BOOKS SEIZED FROM INDEPENDENT LIBRARIES and NOT LIKELY to be MADE AVAILABLE TO THE READING PUBLIC:
From http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-15e.cfm (Trial of Diasdado Gonzalez Marrero, in Matanzas, 7 April 2003. Sentence number 15.)
Como Llego La Noche, by Huber Matos (TusQuets, April 30, 2004). Paperback: 589 pages.   ISBN: 8483109441.   Source of bibliographic citation: Amazon.com

The following is from the original PDF photographic images of the original sentencing documents at the “Rule of Law and Cuba” web site, images that were later replaced by the transcribed versions in Spanish and machine-translated into English. In the transition to the later display, Santa Clara sentencing document number one (the trial of Omar Pernet Hernandez and Lester Gonzalez Penton) was omitted from the FSU website.

“Members of the Ministry of the Interior carried out a search of the accused Lester Gonzalez Penton's residence, confiscating a great quantity of subversive material and other media aimed at continuing his communication with the counterrevolution in the exterior; among them the principle ones are the following: documents:
Jose Marti: the Invasion of Cuba,
Animal Farm [Spanish title: Rebelión en la Granja],
Cuba: a Century of Painful Apprenticeship,
At the Edge of the Fence,
and an additional great quantity of literature such that, as with the cases of the other accused persons, listing all of them would make this sentence interminable, and all of them are of a subversive character...."

“I made copies of the original PDF versions of the Spanish documents before they were replaced by the digitized text, so I have a copy of this document in my (rather chaotic) files. “ - Bob [Kent]

SEARCH FOR YOURSELF, using this list of trial sentencing document Web pages, as detailed above, and the following key words:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-6e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm. Search for “destruction.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm. Search for “destruction.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm. Search for “destrúyase.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm. Search for “destruction.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-7e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-camaguey-1e.cfm. Search for “destruction.”
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-3e.cfm. Search for “incineration.”

José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, on how Castro's dictatorial mind works: --  Castro's 'Free' Universal Education”, by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, January 6th 2004; accessed 8/15/2008 at http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-01-06/news/bill-moyers-practicing-dissent/2.


A FINAL THOUGHT