U.S. Concern about the Health of Cuban Political Prisoner Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello

The United States is deeply concerned over the failing health of Cuban political prisoner Marta Beatriz Roque. According to family members, Ms. Roque was transferred to the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital in Havana last Thursday due to high blood pressure, chest pain and nose bleeds. Her health has worsened since her incarceration. The Cuban government should provide her with the best possible medical treatment.

Ms. Roque is a 57-year-old independent economist and the head of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, an umbrella organization of dissident groups created in October 2002 that has called for democracy and greater freedom. She was arrested along with 74 other independent activists, journalists, and librarians, during the brutal March 2003 crackdown. She was found guilty, among other things, of having created a website that reported on Cuba’s deteriorating economic situation and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The 75 prisoners are being held in inhumane conditions, with very poor sanitation, contaminated water, and nearly inedible food. The Cuban government appears to be going out of its way to treat these prisoners inhumanely. It should immediately cease this practice and, at the minimum, allow the appropriate humanitarian organizations to monitor the treatment of its political prisoners, whose only real crime was to call for peaceful democratic change in Cuba. Ms. Roque and all of the other political prisoners should be released immediately.