Banned Books Week 2009 CORRECTED (I hope) appeal to Cuba
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Steve Marquardt
Oct 1, 2009, 12:23:33 PM10/1/09
to Cuba451Letters
Fellow supporters of intellectual freedom in Cuba,
For some mysterious reason, the original link to the following appeal
is not working, so I am pasting in the text below.
This is the quarterly appeal for Cuba's library prisoners during this
year’s Banned Books Week. In light of the economic downturn, this one
may be sent with only a 44 cent stamp. Simply copy this web page and
paste it into Word, alter it as you wish, date it, sign it and send.
Thanks for your participation!
Steve Marquardt, Ph.D.
South Dakota State University Dean of Libraries Emeritus
Amnesty International Legislative Coordinator for Minnesota
marquar...@gmail.com
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the
silence of our friends.”
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
2009
Sr. Jorge Bolaños
Chief of the Cuban Interests Section
2630 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009-4202
Señor Bolaños,
During September 26 to October 3, the USA library community has been
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 sentencing documents that ordered these
destructions.
The American Library Association policy statement 53.7 says
“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 3 September
2009.”
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.” Among the burned books was a biography of Dr. Matrin Luther
King, Jr. 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 Bolaños, please covey to President Raúl Castro my request 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 laboring to overcome the ongoing challenges
resulting from 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 3 September
2009.”
Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library Workers and
other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 3 September 2009
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.
Campaign for Peace and Democracy (March 2003)
Liberal International (March 2003)
Christian Democrat International (21 March 2003)
European Union Presidency (26 March 2003 and 5 June 2003)
Socialist International (28 March 2003)
French Communist Party (8 April 2003)
The International Press Institute (8 April 2003, 17 March 2009)
World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum (9 April
2003)
World Council of Churches, General Secretary (18 April 2003)
Italian legislature (29 April 2003)
Amnesty International (beginning 3 June 2003, then in 2004 and again
in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009)
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (9 July 2003)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Personal Representative (4
January 2005, 20 January 2006 and 26 January 2007)
International Federation for Human Rights, a.k.a. FIDH: La Fédération
internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (21 March 2003, again
in 2004 and 2009)
German Bundestag Commission of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (11
November 2003)
179 American leftists, in a Letter to the Editors of New York Review
of Books, vol. L, no. 19 (December 4, 2003), p. 62.
International PEN (5 December 2003, campaign of 6-12 September 2004,
21 February 2008, 13 March 2008, 17-22 September 2008)
International Society for Human Rights (Germany) (early 2004)
John Berry, 2003-2004 Chair of the American Library Association’s
International Relations Committee and President of the ALA in
2001-2002 (7 March 2004)
Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Freedom House, et al (17
March 2004), including
Freedom House, International League for Human Rights, Jacob Blaustein
Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Minnesota Advocates for
Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, and Human Rights First
(call renewed 31 March 2007)
Human Rights Watch (17 March 2004, reiterated 19 February 2008 and
September 2008)
Human Rights First (21 March 2005, 21 February 2008, 18 March 2008 and
11 December 2008)
European Parliament (22 April 2004)
European Union Council (14 June 2004 and 17 June 2007)
PEN American Center (19 July 2004, 2 December 2004, August 2005)
International Labor Organization Committee on Freedom of Association
(18 August 2004, 17 June 2005, November 2006)
Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech
Republic, Presidium of the Executive Committee (18 January 2005)
Inter American Press Association (22 February 2005, 18 March 2009)
Committee to Protect Journalists (16 March 2005, 14 March 2007, 28
February 2008, 25 June 2008, 6 January 2009)
International Federation of Journalists (21 May 2005)
Polish Librarians Association National Congress of Delegates (5 June
2005)
Estonian Librarians Association President (4 August 2005 letter to
Robert Kent of the Friends of Cuban Libraries)
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy (12 October 2005)
Confédération Mondiale du Travail (27 November 2005)
Michael Gorman, President of the American Library Association (January
22, 2006): “[T]hese people should not be in prison. They should be
freed immediately. They should never have been sentenced, sent to
prison for the activities connected with any kind of dissemination of
information or literature.”
Library Association of Latvia (28 February 2006)
Pax Christi of the Netherlands (members of which have also adopted
individual prisoners and have published their own individual appeals
in the Netherlands media) (18 March 2006)
Association for International Affairs (Czech Republic), People in Need
(Czech Republic), and the Pontis Foundation (Slovakia) (26 April
2006).
People In Need (Czech Republic) (undated)
Organization of American States, Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (21 October 2006, reiterated in 2007 Annual Report)
English PEN (2 May 2007)
Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, being
“Representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Commonwealth
Press Union, International Association of Broadcasting, International
Press Institute, North American Broadcasters Association, World
Association of Newspapers, World Press Freedom Committee and Inter
American Press Association” (3 December 2007, 4 June 2009)
Lech Walesa and Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal daily (21
January 2008)
Reporters Without Borders (16 March 2005, 9 August 2006, 18 February
2008, 3 February 2009)
International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, including former
presidents or prime ministers of Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia
and Canada (16 March 2008)
Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations (18 June 2008),
representing the Committee to Protect Journalists, Inter American
Press Association, International Association of Broadcasting,
International Press Institute, World Association of Newspapers, and
the World Press Freedom Committee
European Union External Relations Commissioner (20 June 2008)
Canada (Gwyn Kutz, senior Canadian diplomat (5 February 2009)
Israeli ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar (5 February 2009)
United States Senate (3 May 2009)
For some mysterious reason, the original link to the following appeal
is not working, so I am pasting in the text below.
This is the quarterly appeal for Cuba's library prisoners during this
year’s Banned Books Week. In light of the economic downturn, this one
may be sent with only a 44 cent stamp. Simply copy this web page and
paste it into Word, alter it as you wish, date it, sign it and send.
Thanks for your participation!
Steve Marquardt, Ph.D.
South Dakota State University Dean of Libraries Emeritus
Amnesty International Legislative Coordinator for Minnesota
marquar...@gmail.com
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the
silence of our friends.”
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
2009
Sr. Jorge Bolaños
Chief of the Cuban Interests Section
2630 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009-4202
Señor Bolaños,
During September 26 to October 3, the USA library community has been
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 sentencing documents that ordered these
destructions.
The American Library Association policy statement 53.7 says
“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 3 September
2009.”
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.” Among the burned books was a biography of Dr. Matrin Luther
King, Jr. 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 Bolaños, please covey to President Raúl Castro my request 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 laboring to overcome the ongoing challenges
resulting from 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 3 September
2009.”
Organizations Calling for Release of the Cuban Library Workers and
other 2003 Prisoners of Conscience, as of 3 September 2009
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.
Campaign for Peace and Democracy (March 2003)
Liberal International (March 2003)
Christian Democrat International (21 March 2003)
European Union Presidency (26 March 2003 and 5 June 2003)
Socialist International (28 March 2003)
French Communist Party (8 April 2003)
The International Press Institute (8 April 2003, 17 March 2009)
World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum (9 April
2003)
World Council of Churches, General Secretary (18 April 2003)
Italian legislature (29 April 2003)
Amnesty International (beginning 3 June 2003, then in 2004 and again
in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009)
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (9 July 2003)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Personal Representative (4
January 2005, 20 January 2006 and 26 January 2007)
International Federation for Human Rights, a.k.a. FIDH: La Fédération
internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (21 March 2003, again
in 2004 and 2009)
German Bundestag Commission of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (11
November 2003)
179 American leftists, in a Letter to the Editors of New York Review
of Books, vol. L, no. 19 (December 4, 2003), p. 62.
International PEN (5 December 2003, campaign of 6-12 September 2004,
21 February 2008, 13 March 2008, 17-22 September 2008)
International Society for Human Rights (Germany) (early 2004)
John Berry, 2003-2004 Chair of the American Library Association’s
International Relations Committee and President of the ALA in
2001-2002 (7 March 2004)
Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Freedom House, et al (17
March 2004), including
Freedom House, International League for Human Rights, Jacob Blaustein
Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Minnesota Advocates for
Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, and Human Rights First
(call renewed 31 March 2007)
Human Rights Watch (17 March 2004, reiterated 19 February 2008 and
September 2008)
Human Rights First (21 March 2005, 21 February 2008, 18 March 2008 and
11 December 2008)
European Parliament (22 April 2004)
European Union Council (14 June 2004 and 17 June 2007)
PEN American Center (19 July 2004, 2 December 2004, August 2005)
International Labor Organization Committee on Freedom of Association
(18 August 2004, 17 June 2005, November 2006)
Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech
Republic, Presidium of the Executive Committee (18 January 2005)
Inter American Press Association (22 February 2005, 18 March 2009)
Committee to Protect Journalists (16 March 2005, 14 March 2007, 28
February 2008, 25 June 2008, 6 January 2009)
International Federation of Journalists (21 May 2005)
Polish Librarians Association National Congress of Delegates (5 June
2005)
Estonian Librarians Association President (4 August 2005 letter to
Robert Kent of the Friends of Cuban Libraries)
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy (12 October 2005)
Confédération Mondiale du Travail (27 November 2005)
Michael Gorman, President of the American Library Association (January
22, 2006): “[T]hese people should not be in prison. They should be
freed immediately. They should never have been sentenced, sent to
prison for the activities connected with any kind of dissemination of
information or literature.”
Library Association of Latvia (28 February 2006)
Pax Christi of the Netherlands (members of which have also adopted
individual prisoners and have published their own individual appeals
in the Netherlands media) (18 March 2006)
Association for International Affairs (Czech Republic), People in Need
(Czech Republic), and the Pontis Foundation (Slovakia) (26 April
2006).
People In Need (Czech Republic) (undated)
Organization of American States, Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (21 October 2006, reiterated in 2007 Annual Report)
English PEN (2 May 2007)
Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, being
“Representatives of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Commonwealth
Press Union, International Association of Broadcasting, International
Press Institute, North American Broadcasters Association, World
Association of Newspapers, World Press Freedom Committee and Inter
American Press Association” (3 December 2007, 4 June 2009)
Lech Walesa and Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal daily (21
January 2008)
Reporters Without Borders (16 March 2005, 9 August 2006, 18 February
2008, 3 February 2009)
International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, including former
presidents or prime ministers of Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia
and Canada (16 March 2008)
Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations (18 June 2008),
representing the Committee to Protect Journalists, Inter American
Press Association, International Association of Broadcasting,
International Press Institute, World Association of Newspapers, and
the World Press Freedom Committee
European Union External Relations Commissioner (20 June 2008)
Canada (Gwyn Kutz, senior Canadian diplomat (5 February 2009)
Israeli ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar (5 February 2009)
United States Senate (3 May 2009)
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