Cuban political prisoner on the state of Cuban and American journalism

Former Cuban prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera speak up on press freedom and the human rights violations of the Castro government. Herrera was imprisoned during 12 years for the alleged crime of committing an outrage "against state security." 

In Cuba, nearly all forms of political dissent are repressed. Through vague and overbroad laws, the Cuban government silence its citizens' critics and arbitrarily arrest dissidents and journalists. 

As a journalist and coordinator of the Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement, an organization that defends the rights of higher learning institutions, Herrera was put among highly dangerous criminals, murderers, and drug traffickers. 

While a small number of journalists write for foreign media sources, they do so at considerable risk. After realizing that neither the International Red Cross nor the High Commissioner for Human Rights could access to his prison, Herrera understood prison was the price he paid for taking that risk.

Q: What did you do to end in jail?

I was born in Guantánamo. The Cuban East has always been the stronghold of Fidel Castro because he couldn't allow himself to lose power over the region. He started hiding information, which has always been under the control of the regime. 

A group of university students founded the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy in 1991. We began to write very rustically. We got the information out as we could-mainly through people who visited the island. Then, we started working directly for Radio Martí, which is a federal station in Cuba that also serves as an international bridge for Reporters Without Borders and other international outlets. 

The regime opposed the exposure of the situation in the prisons of the island, a topic that was highly covered in our organization. He didn’t care when we said he was killing people of hunger or when we demanded the freedom of speech violations, he started to care when we exposed his concentration camps, which are the prisons. That really bothered him. They threatened us for a long time until the threats turned into actions.There's also a social situation. The social situation of a country under a communist regime was not a secret to anyone but we were the ones publicly talking about it.

Q: Can you explain the poor conditions in Cuban prisons?

A: People died in the border of the Guantanamo naval base. They died at the hands of Castro's border guards and nobody dared to publish their names. Nor did anyone talk about the situation of the prisons, the murders at the hands of the guards or the human rights violations. 

Q: What crime were you accused of?

A: Acts against the security of the state.

Q: Do you know what happened to the journalists who worked with you?

A: Almost all of them were imprisoned. There are very few who are still there, but repression has increased much more. With the emergence of social media, the regime constantly feels in danger and what it does is to imprison innocent people, although it is no longer like the Black Spring-like my second imprisonment.

Q: How is it different now?

A: They first gave me life imprisonment, then 39 years, and then changed it to 20 years. Right now, the sentences are not as long as they used to be. However, just a day in prison, for this reason, is already a human rights violation. The difference is that they have changed it for shorter arrest periods and shorter incarcerations; about 3-5 years, but the arrests continue.

Q: What argument does the government use to imprison journalists?

A: The government refers to it as "rebel acts against the security of the state." The law of Cuba is actually called “the prevention measure for social danger.” The government sends people to prison when they think they could be dangerous to the regime in the future. They take you to prison because you can eventually commit an offense, not because you already have.

Q: Were you imprisoned under that law?

A: No, the first time was the law of “acts against the state’s security.” The second was the Law 88-better known as the Mordaza Law, which is still in effect.

Q: Internationally, Cuba has stated that it has opened its doors to internet access. What do you think about this, considering that laws such as Law 88 are still in place to this day?

A: In Cuba, all the media is completely controlled by the government. Every media outlet has its supervisors who are intelligence officers in charge of reviewing the information that is coming out. All of them-even the private ones- end up being part of the same chain because all the newspapers are nothing more than an extension of the Granma newspaper, which is the state-owned media. It is the official newspaper and the only one of the Cuban party- all the others are just its extension.

Q: As a political prisoner, what responsibility do you believe journalists have, not only in Cuba but everywhere else, to not be silenced by the government?

A: At this moment the worst and riskiest profession is being a journalist. Just look at the situation in Mexico, Egypt, Russia, North Korea or China. Unlike Cuba, in the United States, there is freedom of expression. But journalists need to use this wisely. Freedom is a double-edged sword. Sometimes the media is inclined to political passions, which is what is hurting the democracy in this country. I am at the midpoint.

The media should never be biased. The journalist must be a journalist and not a political actor. When you cross a political side and defend a party over your duty, you are a political actor. You are no longer a journalist. Right now political passions are prevailing over the journalist's duty to give their life for the truth.

Q: How did you get to the United States?

A: I was in Spain first. We left thanks to an agreement between the Catholic Church, the Castro regime, and the Spanish government. We arrived in Spain, which was practically a country in ruins. President Obama was the one who opened us the doors. I was the second to be called by the American Embassy to travel to the United States.

Q: What is your current profession?

A: A: In Cuba, I was a journalist for many years. Even before the independent journalism movement was founded. We decided to showcase the real Cuba, not the one that pretended to misinform the world about the Castro regime. That cost us several years in jail. In my case 12 and a half years. I am working as a supervisor of a cleaning company.