Today, February 24, 2003, Amnesty International issued a worldwide "URGENT
ACTION Appeal" to save the life of Leonardo Bruzón, an imprisoned Cuban human
rights activist whose health is failing due to a hunger strike. He is being
held in a punishment cell and is being denied urgently needed medical
attention.
Please refer to the "RECENT NEWS" section of our website
(www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org) for the full text of Amnesty's Urgent
Action appeal with recommended actions. Your compassionate assistance in
this matter is of crucial importance, and will be greatly appreciated.
In addition to being a human rights activist, Leonardo Bruzón is also the
director of Havana's 24th of February Independent Library, which specializes
in children's programming. In September, 2001, Amnesty issued an earlier
appeal on Leonardo's behalf when he was arrested for showing the Disney film
"Hercules" during a children's library program. In Amnesty's background
information on his case, the human rights organization stated: "The media in
Cuba is controlled by the state, and freedom of expression, association and
assembly are severely limited. The first independent library was started in
1998 in Las Tunas.... Since then many independent libraries have been set
up, and many librarians have been detained, harassed and threatened with
arrest if they continue their work, or asked to leave the country."
Thank you,
The Friends of Cuban Libraries
(WWW.FRIENDSOFCUBANLIBRARIES.ORG)
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