Two American human rights activists have formed the Friends of Cuban Libraries to oppose what they term “the systematic intimidation and arrest of independent librarians in Cuba and the seizure of their book collections.” In a June 21 letter to Premier Fidel Castro and other Cuban government officials, the Friends called for “an end to harassment” and “the prompt return of all books confiscated from the independent libraries by the state security police.”
The organization was founded earlier this month by Robert Kent, a librarian at New York Public Library, and Jorge Sanguinetty, a businessman from Washington and Miami. Kent told American Libraries that since April 1998, 16 “independent libraries entirely free of government control” have been opened in the homes of individuals involved in human-rights activities. They have been “subjected to harassment, threats, and short-term arrests,” he said.
Offering collections donated by the public, these libraries reject the censorship to which government-funded libraries are subjected, Kent said, adding that library professionals are often sympathetic to these “pioneers trying to develop a civil society in Cuba,” but “they fear for their jobs.”
Posted June 21, 1999.