Get out of the fire of hypocrisy
from the edge of barefoot verse
Look for an avenue to throw down these necessities
and don't delay on the threshold of pearls and rain.
Enter like a shooting star.
Break the protocol
and teach the remnants of your soul
chained to the last collection of poems.
None will dare call you a marionette, wretch or fool
You will be - for ever more - safe
from gloomy reflections
from voices from beyond the grave
from the threads that support the mask
Escape from falsity and heaviness
At the end of the passage there is a door.
Escape this minute.
Before nightfall.
Before they trap you again
and force you to howl like a goat
or to jump like a fool.
- Jorge Olivera Castillo
translated by Cat Lucas
THROUGHOUT 2009, the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN campaigned for measures to ensure freedom of expression for the people of Cuba.
Cuba operates by far the most hostile approach to freedom of expression anywhere in Latin America. There are currently 26 writers imprisoned in Cuba for expressing their political beliefs. Only China, Iran and Burma imprison more writers for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
56 people including writers, librarians, book collectors, trades unionists, political activists and human rights campaigners have been in prison since the notorious 'Black Spring' wave of arrests which took place in March 2003.
Prison conditions for these detainees are appalling. Cuba is one of the few countries in the world that deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.
Cuba has rejected many of the measures suggested by the United Nations in February 2009 to improve human rights in the country.
Political conformity is imposed through the use of criminal prosecutions, long- and short-term detentions, harassment, police warnings, surveillance, house arrests, travel restrictions, exile and politically motivated dismissals from employment.
All print and broadcast media are state-controlled.
There is more space for free expression in the arts. Novelists present critical views of the island, but there is little funding for publishing and books are not widely obtainable.
Cubans are also able to express dissent online. Unfortunately, ordinary Cubans have limited access to the internet, meaning they are unable to use it as an effective tool to drive activism and culture.
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