Lamasiel Gutiérrez RomeroOf the 24 journalists imprisoned in Cuba, 23 are men.
The one woman is Lamasiel Gutiérrez Romero, who since October has been at the women's prison at Mantonegro, in Havana province.
That's what Fidel Castro does to men and women committed to telling the truth about Cuba and the communist regime who just won't shut up. With Gutiérrez, they tried house arrest, and when she violated the terms of her detention by returning to work as a journalist, they threw her in jail.
Last August, Gutiérrez was sentenced to seven months of house arrest "resisting the authorities and civil disobedience."
That's communist comemierda for "we don't like your politics."
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports:
The charges relate to the events of 14 July, when she was detained arbitrarily for seven hours by three state security agents. She was hit and she offered some resistence when the agents began to photograph and film her and take her fingerprints.
When she refused on 14 July to sign a charge sheet, the police officer who will be the main prosecution witness at her trial, Eliaves Hernández, said : "It does not matter, you will be tried all the same."
While detained, Gutiérrez received a visit from the head of the intelligence services, who told that, as he could not try her for political reasons, he would find any other pretext for bringing her to trial.
When Gutiérrez tried to find a lawyer, the state legal aid lawyer on duty that day told her that, since the main prosecution witness was a member of the National Revolutionary Police, she had no chance of finding a lawyer to defend her and that there would be no point anyway.
In October, Gutiérrez, was transferred to prison "because she continued her journalistic activities in defiance of a court order," according to RSF.
Jiménez: He should be proud of his wife
Gutiérrez is married to Rolando Jiménez Pozada, who has been imprisoned since April 25, 2003. A lawyer, Jiménez, 36, is listed by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. He has not been formally charged or tried by the Cuban authorities.
Reporters Without Borders today, the eve of International Women's Day on Wednesday, called for the release of Guitérrez and five other women journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia, Iran, Maldives, Nepal and Rwanda.
RSF also renewed its plea for the release of two women journalists held hostage in Iraq: American Jill Carroll and Iraqi Rim Zeid.
For more, about imprisoned independent Cuba journalists, go to Payolibre, CubaNet or Reporters Without Borders.
For more on Uncommon Sense's March 18 Project, read here.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Reporters Without Borders has an ongoing petition drive asking Castro to release independent journalists in prison. You can sign the petition here. (A technical note: Reporters Without Borders is based in Paris, so the confirmation e-mail you will receive after signing the petition will be in French. Just in case you don't read French, the confirmation e-mail asks you click on the link to complete the petition signature process. Castro won't receive your message until you click on the link.)
For more on the Cuban dissidents, including a chance to "adopt a dissident," see the Cuban American National Foundation's Web site.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do is find and read the work of independent journalists still on the island. A place to find their articles, in Spanish, English and French, is CubaNet.
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