The largest U.S. library association this week opted not to demand the release of private Cuban librarians jailed by Fidel Castro’s government in the spring, despite voting to support an investigation of the incarcerations by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
At its national meeting in San Diego, the American Library Association, noting that individuals operating private libraries in Cuba consider themselves “political dissidents” not librarians, left out specific language calling for their release Wednesday.
“Today marks a tragic date in the history of the American Library Association,” said Robert Kent, head of the New York-based advocacy group Friends of Cuban Libraries. “They failed to live up to their highest ideal, which is a support for intellectual freedom as a universal human right.”
John W. Barry, a former ALA president and head of the group’s international relations committee that was involved in writing the report, said yesterday that the group did act, but avoided stronger language because of internal opposition.
It was a “contentious issue within our association,” he said. “Several people felt that it was not our place to go there.”
Since the late 1990s, an underground movement has been afoot in Cuba to defy Mr. Castro’s ban on a wide variety of books, ranging from works by poets and writers advocating human rights to volumes on free market economics or religious freedom. The movement is driven by individuals establishing an interconnected community of independent libraries in private homes across the island.
As many as 200 of the private, free libraries were established by 2003 when the Castro regime rounded up about 75 dissidents nationwide. Among those arrested were 14 independent librarians, who, according to published reports, are facing a collective 196 years in prison for challenging their government’s laws regarding what books people are allowed to read.
The situation has prompted some U.S. supporters of the Independent Library Project of Cuba to request that the 64,000-strong ALA call on Mr. Castro to release members of the project who have been detained.
The ALA neglected to do so, adopting instead a declaration of unity with the International Federation of Library Associations in The Hague, which previously urged Cuba to loosen its policies toward controlling information and called on the United States to share information materials widely with Cuba.
ALA critics contend that the group is ignoring the plea of jailed librarians in Cuba and missing an opportunity to support a fledgling movement of intellectual freedom on the communist island.
Ramon Colas, one of the founders of the Independent Library Project of Cuba, who lives in Miami and has been vocal about the ALA’s failure to pass a resolution, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The report adopted by the ALA does urge Cuba “to eliminate obstacles to access to information imposed by its policies.” It also calls on Mr. Castro’s government “to respect, defend and promote the basic human rights” defined by the United Nations.
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