MADRID, Spain.- The Observatory of Academic Freedom (OLA) presented this Thursday his report no. 29where the police state against teachers in Cuba is analyzed.
The document describes in detail the circumstances surrounding the censorship processes that have affected teachers in different decades and provinces of Cuba, as well as the incidence of Cuban higher education institutions in the violation of the rights of students and teachers in the country.
“This section collects data from 29 OLA reports, whose objective is to identify and analyze historical patterns in the violation of the Human Rights of teachers and students in educational institutions in Cuba, specifically with regard to academic freedom. The purpose of this documentation is to demonstrate with each of these cases the permanence of the political-ideological persecution in the academic field that has occurred since 1959,” the Observatory specified.
Likewise, the implications for academic freedoms of Law 151/2022 Penal Code of the Republic of Cuba are documented; and the Manifesto of the Communist Party is analyzed, specifically what concerns the training of teachers in Cuba.
Among the cases of repression against teachers is that of Miriam Luisa Leiva Viamonte, who studied pedagogy and graduated in International Relations at the Higher Institute of International Relations (ISRI). In September 1992, Miriam was expelled from MINREX for refusing to abandon her husband, the economist and former diplomat Oscar Manuel Espinosa Chepe. Consequently, Miriam Luisa was subjected to an inquisitorial process for which she was blamed for the “loss of political reliability”, with the labor and social consequences derived from ideological marginalization in Cuba, exposes El Observatorio.
As well as that of the actress Iris Mariño, who worked since 2015, for three consecutive courses, as a contracted teacher for hours of the subject Body Expression at the Vicentina de la Torre de Camagüey Art Academy and simultaneously collaborated with the independent media Cuban Time. On September 4, 2018, when Mariño showed up at the school, the head of the Department told him that his contract would not be renewed because the center had received three trained teachers and was suffering from budget cuts. The professor appealed to the Academy’s Base Labor Justice Body (OJLB).
The Academic Freedom Observatory continues to document violations of rights and academic freedom that occurred within Cuban educational institutions from 1959.
The document was prepared by academics Sergio Ángel, Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola, José Raúl Gallego, Alenmichel Aguiló, Leonardo Fernández Otaño, Dimas Castellanos, David Gómez Gamboa, Catalina Rodríguez and Camila Herrera.
