Caselist - PEN International

24between local politicians, landowners and illegal paramilitary groups. Hereceived protection under a programme run by the Interior and JusticeMinistry between 2006 and 2009 and asked for the security measures tobe reinstated in November 2009 due to increasing threats; however hisrequest was reportedly turned down on the basis of a national intelligenceagency report that indicated he was no longer under threat. Investigation:An investigation into the murder was begun by the national police andtaken over by the attorney general on 26 March 2010. Castilla’s daughter,who is a witness in the case, was reportedly forced to flee Montería in lateApril 2010 after being followed and harassed. [RAN 26/10] Case closedas no new information.CUBABrief detention*Guillermo FARIÑAS: independent journalist and dissident, was detainedon 15 September 2011. The place of his detention (and the whereaboutsof more than 20 others detained in the same swoop) is unknown. Farinashad been detained on numerous occasions in 2011 (see previous case list)and previously spent 11.5 years in prison for variety of offences.Calixto Ramos MARTINEZ ARIAS: correspondent for the Centro deInformación Hablemos Press, was arrested on 30 September 2011 andheld at the Alternative Penal Centre prison in Havana, where it was decidedto deport him from the capital for the ninth time in less than two years,to his home town of Camagüey. Background: Martinez has been detainedmany times. On 16 May 2011 he spent three days in police custody on theorders of a state security official. No reason was given for the arrest. Accordingto Martínez, on this occasion, a state security official destroyedhis identity card and said he would shoot him in the head the next timehe saw him in the police station. This was reportedly the second time hehad been arrested in May 2011. He was reportedly forcibly moved fromHavana to Camaguey in 2010 because of his journalistic work.Harassed* Ángel SANTIESTEBAN: prize-winning writer and author of theblog, Los Hijos que Nadie Quiso (the Sons that Nobody Loved/Wanted).According to reports, he is the victim of a campaign of harassment carriedout by the Cuban regime. He faces at least 10 years in prison on a collectionof allegedly fabricated charges, ranging from rape to harassment, torunning over a minor in his car. He has criticised the ‘terrible repression’of the regime and has written articles about how the authorities have triedto ‘capture’ him. PEN is seeking more information.DOMINICAN REPUBLICKilled*José Agustín SILVESTRE de los SANTOS: Journalist known by thename ‘Gajo’, hosted the television program La Voz de la Verdad (‘TheVoice of Reason’) and published a twice-monthly magazine withthe same name. Silvestre (59) was kidnapped on 02 August 2011 inthe south-western province of La Romana by four men in a SUV. Hisbody was found two hours later with multiple gunshot wounds on thehighway that runs between La Romana and San Pedro de Macorís. Hissister, who was with Silvestre when he was abducted, reported that hehad stood up to his assailants and that one of them had shot him duringthe struggle. Silvestre was well known for his reporting on drug traffickingin La Romana. He had previously been held in prison in May2011 for several days, and charged with libel, after he had reportedon alleged ties between a local police prosecutor and drug traffickers.According to reports, Silvestre had reported being followed a few daysbefore his murder. The Attorney General’s office announced the creationof a special investigative commission to investigate the murder. On 11August 2011 the Dominican police identified the individuals whom theybelieved masterminded and carried out the killing of Silvestre. They saidthat the motive was an article by Silvestre linking the alleged mastermindto criminal activities. According to investigators, Silvestre was abductedon the orders from Matias Avelino Castro, the owner of a hotel and advertisingagency. They said that Avelino also took revenge for an article bySilvestre linking him to criminal activities including the murder of twopeople in the eastern city of La Romana. Avelino allegedly asked AngelAmed Manon Gutierrez to carry out the murder. Manon was arrested withthe murder weapon on him on 7 August 2011and according to the policehe has since confessed the crime. On 9 August 2011, police named threeother suspects accomplices, Denny Junior Serrano, Elvin Canario deOleo and Fermin Marcellino Calderion. The police are searching for thethree as well as the alleged mastermind. According to the police, traces ofblood were found in a rented car immediately after the murder. Avelinoallegedly called the head of the car company Antonio Rafael FulgencioLan and asked him to destroy the renting contract. Fulgencio has beenarrested and a judge ordered for him to be held in a pre-trial detention forthree months on a charge of complicity in a crime.ECUADORTried/Imprisoned*Jaime MANTILLA ANDERSON: editor of Hoy newspaper, wassentenced on 21 December 2011 to three months in prison and a paymentof a US$25 fine for libel, based on a lawsuit filed by President RafaelCorrea’s cousin, Pedro Delgado (currently chairman of the board ofEcuador’s Central Bank). The lawsuit was initiated in December 2009,after the publication of several articles in the newspaper’s Blanco y Negrosupplement, on 28 September, 1 October and 2 October of that year.The Pichincha Judicial Police were ordered to locate and capture himimmediately. The newspaper’s reports referred to allegations of influencepeddling.On trial*Carlos Eduardo PÉREZ BARRIGA, César Enrique PÉREZBARRIGA, Carlos Nicolás PÉREZ ENRIQUE (co-directors ofthe Guayaquil-based daily newspaper El Universo) and EmilioPALACIO (columnist for El Universo): All were sentenced to threeyears in prison and US$40 million on 20 July 2011 for allegedly libelingPresident Rafael Correa in an article published in February thisyear. Palacio appealed the ruling, but in September 2011 his appealwas rejected. The paper’s directors will appeal on 13 January 2012.Background: In March 2011, President Rafael Correa brought criminallibel charges against Emilio Palacio columnist for the Guayaquil-baseddaily El Universo, and the newspaper’s co-directors Carlos Eduardo PérezBarriga, César Enrique Pérez Barriga and Carlos Nicolás Pérez Enriqueover a 6 February 2011 article entitled ‘No to Lies’. In the article, Palaciorefers to President Correa as “the dictator”, and accuses him of wantingto pardon three policemen who were behind an uprising on 30 September2010 during which several people were killed. He also insinuates that thePresident may be guilty of crimes against humanity by allegedly orderingtroops to open fire on a police hospital where he sought refuge after beingattacked by protesters. The President asked the court to sentence eachof the defendants to the maximum of three years in prison and to finethem US$50 million under Article 493 of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code.He also sought US$30 million in damages from the newspaper’s parentcompany. On 7 July, Palacio resigned from El Universo in the hope thatthe move would lead President Correa to withdraw the case. However,this proved unsuccessful and the trial began on 19 July, attended by thePresident in person. That day, the co-directors of El Universo offered toprint a correction drafted by the President, an offer which he rejecteddespite having previously said he would drop the case if such a correctionwere published. On 20 July, less than 24 hours after the trial started, thefour journalists were sentenced to three years in prison each and fined atotal of US$30 million. The paper’s parent company was also ordered topay an additional US$10 million in damages. According to the Office ofthe Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-AmericanCommission on Human Rights (IACHR), the defendants must also payUS$2 million to the President’s attorneys in legal fees. The IACHRSpecial Rapporteur also said that prior to the hearing the government hadissued several statements disparaging El Universo, its board membersand Palacio, and that groups of protesters supportive of the governmentreportedly insulted the defendants and a witness as they left the tribunal.Palacio and the three El Universo directors intend to appeal the verdict.The President reportedly also planned to lodge an appeal in order to seekthe full US$80 damages requested. [RAN 42/11]Peter TAVRA FRANCO: journalist with the newspaper El Universo.On 19 July 2011, Judge Angel Rubio ordered the arrest of the journalistand issued a warrant for his home to be searched. Tavra is accused ofdamaging the “good name, honour and reputation” of Mónica Carrera ina February 2009 article which described her alleged escape from a clinicafter she was arrested for human trafficking. According to Tavra, the articlewas based on police documents that supported the information. Hefaces damages of up to US $10 million if convicted. Tavra had previouslybeen sentenced to six months in prison on 15 January 2010 on defamationcharges relating to the article and was ordered to pay US$3,000 indamages. However, this sentence was subsequently overturned in January2010. The case has been brought forward again by Carrera’s siblings.Diego OQUENDO: journalist, wrote the editorial “Fregundo la Pita”(‘Bothering someone’), which appeared in the daily newspaper Hoy on 27June 2011. On 13 July 2011 President Rafael Correa’s lawyer AlembertVera submitted a request to the prosecutor’s office calling for proceedingsto be initiated against the journalist. Vera is accusing Oquendo of slanderover the editorial, which speculated on the amount of lawyers’ feeswhich could be generated in a lawsuit filed by President Correa againstthe newspaper El Universo (see above).Juan ALCÍVAR RÍOS: correspondent of the newspaper Diario LaHora, was subject to multiple legal and physical attacks in the secondhalf of 2010. (1) On 8 July 2010 he received a threat from unidentifiedpersons who damaged his car and left him a note warning not to“screw with the mayor”. Alcívar, who was covering the regional policecommand’s rendering of accounts at the time, had not been threatenedbefore. He reported the threat to the police. (2) On 20 August 2010 hewas sentenced to a preventative prison sentence after a public prosecutorinitiated legal proceedings against him for “terrorist aggression againstpublic officials”. Alcívar was in hiding for nearly a month because ofthese proceedings and because he feared for his life. On 13 September2010, the judge substituted the prison sentence for a precautionary measure,ordering Alcívar to appear before the court every 15 days while theprosecutor investigates the case. (3) On 17 September 2010 two publicofficials, the mayor of La Concordia and a municipal trustee, filed a privatelawsuit against Alcívar accusing him of “terrorist aggression againstpublic officials” in which they requested he should be “sanctioned withthe maximum jail sentence” and payment of heavy damages. In this newlawsuit, the journalist is accused of being one of the people responsiblefor having thrown a teargas bomb that affected President Rafael Correawhen he was visiting the district on 19 July. Alcívar was also accused ofcausing personal and material damages and of “hatred” against the mayorand using the newspaper he works for to insult him. (4) On 30 September2010, Alcívar was assaulted while carrying out his work by the trustee ofthe Municipality of La Concordia and another man. (5) On 26 November2010 he was assaulted again and threatened with death, allegedly bythe cousin of the mayor and three other men in La Concordia. He waswith his children at the time. Alcívar did not know that his assailant wasrelated to the mayor of La Concordia until he heard him say he would“kill [him] if [he] continued to speak ill of his cousin.” The assailant andthe others fled after local residents intervened to stop the attack. Alcívarreported the incident to the local police but believes their report was influencedby the fact that the mayor’s cousin was involved. He thinks thatthe attack may have been provoked by his interviews earlier that day withpeople who were complaining about the mayor’s absence during the celebrationof the town’s anniversary. Update: Alcivar reported that since 13June 2011 he has been receiving death threats via mobile phone calls andtext messages for having published articles that refer to a power strugglebetween the local authorities. Alcivar believes that the local mayor, WalterOcampo, is behind the threats because one of the messages said thathe would be put in jail if he keeps “messing around with the mayor.”In addition to the threats, a flyer was circulated on 26 June 20111 viaemail and in print form discrediting the professionalism of both Alcívarand another journalist, Manuel Toro. The flyer said that the journalistswere lying to the public in their articles. No further information at 31 stDecember 2011.Víctor VIZCAÍNO LUZURIAGA: internet writer, was arrested in Guayaquilon 3 May 2011 by police officers who informed him that a warrantfor his arrest had been issued for the purposes of an investigation. The warrantwas issued on 19 April following a complaint filed by a prosecutor.of the Pichincha Public Administration’s Specialized Unit. Vizcaíno wasaccused of having offended the State Prosecutor General through materialposted on his blog (http://www.laplegariadeunpagano.com). He was releasedon 4 May 2011 pending trial. No further news at 31 December 2011.Death threat*César RICAURTE: head of the Ecuadoran press freedom group Fundamedios,reportedly received death threats in October and November2011. The threats were made via email and social media. Ricaurte believesthey come from President Correa and his supporters. They followedthe group’s presentation of press freedom violations in Ecuadorbefore the Inter American Commission on Human Rights on 25 October2011. Ricaurte says that he is scared to go out to public places for fearof being attacked.Harassed/threatenedJuan Carlos CALDERON: author (with Christian ZURITA) of thebook El Gran Hermano (‘Big Brother’) which reveals information aboutcontracts between the brother of President Rafael Correa and the state,received a telephoned threat in October 2011. An unidentified individualwho warned him that he “will be next.” Calderón said that a messageleft on his home answering machine said: “This is where Calderón lives,the arrogant writer. Get ready because it’s your turn now.” Background: 25