1. Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón has been in jail since 1997. The founder of the Línea Sur Press news agency in the province of Cienfuegos, Arévalo Padrón continues to be held despite being eligible for parole. His health has suffered as a result of his prolonged imprisonment.
   
   On October 31, 1997, the Provincial Chamber of the Court of Aguada de Pasajeros, a town in Cienfuegos, sentenced Arévalo Padrón to six years' imprisonment for showing "lack of respect" for President Fidel Castro and for Cuban State Council member Carlos Lage. The charges stemmed from a series of interviews Arévalo Padrón gave in late 1997 to Miami-based radio stations. In the interviews, the journalist alleged that, while Cuban farmers went hungry, helicopters were being used to transport fresh meat from the countryside to the dinner tables of Your Excellency, Lage, and other Communist Party officials in Havana.
   
   On November 18, 1997, State Security officers detained Arévalo Padrón and sent him to jail. The journalist served the early part of his sentence in the maximum-security Ariza Prison in Cienfuegos, where he shared a filthy cell with common criminals. On April 11, 1998, State Security officers beat up Arévalo Padrón after accusing him of writing anti-government posters in prison. He was subsequently placed in solitary confinement. Later, another prisoner was identified as having written the posters.
   
   While at Ariza, Arévalo Padrón faced constant harassment, according to local colleagues. Fellow inmates who managed to make contact with him were transferred or subjected to reprisals. In addition, Arévalo Padrón suffered bouts of bronchitis and was reportedly treated twice for high blood pressure in the prison infirmary. On January 8, the journalist was transferred to Labor Camp No. 20, in the municipality of Abreu, Cienfuegos, where he served four months.
   
   Since April 6, 2000, the journalist has been held in the overcrowded and unsanitary San Marcos labor camp, in the municipality of Lajas, Cienfuegos, where he works chopping weeds with a machete in sugar cane fields. He is being fed an extremely poor diet of rice and watered-down broth. According to the independent news agency CubaPress, prison authorities keep a constant watch on Arévalo Padrón, censor his incoming and outgoing mail, and threaten to send him to a maximum-security prison if he does not meet his production quota.
   
   Because of his strenuous work at several labor camps, Arévalo Padrón has developed lower back pain (sacrolumbagia) and coronary blockage. After ignoring Arévalo Padrón's pain for weeks, in September of this year prison authorities allowed him to undergo a medical examination, CubaPress reported. A doctor determined that Arévalo Padrón's poor health disqualifies him from physical work, and that he should permanently wear an orthopedic brace.
   
   In mid-October, prison authorities informed Arévalo Padrón that his parole had been approved. Yet Arévalo Padrón continues to be held in the San Marcos labor camp, a clear violation of Cuban law.
   
   
2. Manuel Antonio González Castellanos, the correspondent for the independent news agency CubaPress in the eastern province of Holguín, has been in jail since 1998. He has been denied medical assistance and the legal benefits to which he is entitled, such as parole.
   
   González Castellanos was arrested on October 1, 1998, for making critical statements about Your Excellency to state security agents who had stopped and insulted him as he was walking home from a visit with a friend. After awaiting trial in the Holguín Provisional Prison for seven months, he was convicted by the San Germán Municipal Court, in Holguín Province, on May 6, 1999. He crime was "disrespect," and he was sentenced to two years and seven months' imprisonment.
   
   While the charges against González Castellanos did not arise directly from his journalistic work, local journalists suspect that González Castellanos was deliberately provoked by State Security agents in retaliation for his reporting on the activities of political dissidents.
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   On June 30, 1999, González Castellanos was transferred to Holguín's maximum-security prison, "Cuba Sí," where guards routinely harassed him. When he complained about the poor hygienic conditions, the guards threatened to suspend his visiting rights. In late 1999, local independent journalists reported that state security officers promised privileges to other inmates if they would harass González Castellanos and pass on information about him to the authorities.
   
   On March 3, 2000, González Castellanos was transferred back to Holguín Provisional Prison. On June 26, he was confined in a punishment cell for 10 days, after being punched in the head by the prison's reeducation officer and a guard for protesting the confiscation of his handwritten notes. Upon release from the punishment cell, González Castellanos was placed in a labor unit. He had a severe cold for two months and lost considerable weight, but was denied proper medical attention. The journalist's condition improved only after his family managed to provide him with medication.
   
   In mid-November, 2000, González Castellanos, who is also eligible for parole, was told that he was one of 60 prisoners being transferred to a labor camp, where conditions were less harsh. But when the day of the transfer arrived, González Castellanos was told that he would be staying at the Holguín Provisional Prison.

Sincerely,

Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director