Martin Luther King Jr. Biography, a Personal Gift from President Carter, Confiscated by Cuban Police

In May 2002, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana.  On May 16, during his meeting with dissidents and human rights activists in Havana, former President Carter expressed support for the island's uncensored library movement. President Carter presented Gisela Delgado Sablón, the National Director of the Independent Libraries Project, with a gift of books he had brought for the libraries, and stated that the Carter Center in Atlanta would continue to supply Cuba's independent libraries with shipments of books, magazines and other materials.

President Carter signed and dedicated to Gisela a copy of Vincent Roussel's biography titled Martín Luther King: Contra todas las exclusiones, (Bilbao: Desclee de Brouwer, 1995) ISBN-13: 978-8433011091], which she proudly displayed to those assembled in her Dulce María Loynaz Library:

This book was later confiscated from her library during a police raid.
Here is a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education:


The Cuban government's continuing crackdown on political dissidents has dealt a serious blow to the island's independent-library movement, which has become a key source of information for Cuban scholars since its emergence in 1998.

More than a dozen independent librarians were among the 36 dissidents sentenced this month to prison terms of 12 to 27 years, according to Gisela Delgado, director of the library movement. They were convicted of "working with a foreign power to undermine the government," a reference to their relationship with American diplomats.

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana has openly supported the independent libraries, providing them with thousands of books.

Ms. Delgado said there were 102 libraries, typically consisting of a small collection in the back room of someone's house, operating throughout Cuba. The libraries are viewed as a threat by the Cuban government, since many house political books and journals that it deems counterrevolutionary.

The movement's founders, Berta Mexidor and Ramón Colas, both former professors, fled to Miami last year, claiming harassment by Cuban authorities. But until last month, Cuban officials had mostly left the movement alone.

"People were finally starting to lose their fear about visiting the libraries," Ms. Delgado said last week in a telephone interview from her Havana apartment, which also houses the modest Dulce María Loynaz independent library. She said Cuban police raided the library-along with 21 others--last month and confiscated more than 1,000 of her books, including a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. that was a gift from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Ms. Delgado's husband, the democracy activist Héctor Palacios, was sentenced this month to 25 years in prison.

The government says the librarians were arrested for their political activities. "These people were convicted because they committed illegal acts against the country," said a spokesman at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City.

--MARION LLOYD

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