Yoani Sanchez files demand against Cuban Interior Minister

Posted on Thursday, 05.31.12

Yoani Sanchez files demand against Cuban Interior Minister

Blogger Yoani Sanchez filed the demand to know why she's banned from
leaving Cuba.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has filed a notice with the Interior
Ministry demanding to know why she's not allowed to travel abroad, the
latest in a string of daring legal challenges to the communist government.

Sánchez said the notice filed Wednesday asks Interior Minister Abelardo
Colomé Ibarra to explain why the ministry office that is in charge of
exit permits never answered her Nov. 18, 2010 request for the reasons
behind the refusals.

Colomé Ibarra now has 60 days to respond to her complaint of
"administrative silence," Sanchez said. If he doesn't, she will file a
lawsuit against the minister seeking a court order that he must reply.

"Of course, I know what's going to happen. But I want to maintain that
innocence of having hope," Sánchez added, referring to the high
probability that her complaints will go nowhere in a country where the
courts faithfully follow the government line.

Cubans who want to travel abroad require a government permit, known as a
"White Card" and regularly denied to dissidents. It has turned down
several Sánchez requests to travel abroad to receive prizes, attend
conferences or for other reasons.

She has repeatedly asked for an explanation at the Interior Ministry's
Office for Immigration and Foreigners' Affairs, but received none. Her
notice Wednesday elevated her question to the minister's office.

"It's a step before a lawsuit," she told El Nuevo Herald by phone from
Havana. "It is a legal, juridical opportunity in the hands of citizens,
which allow an appeal against Cuban authorities when the authorities
have not responded to a petition."

Her notice was the latest in a handful of bold attempts by dissidents
and others to use Cuba's legal system to challenge official actions. The
courts have knocked down almost all the cases, including some filed
against police.

But the Cuban Juridical Association is still fighting a three-year-old
case seeking the legal recognition of the Justice Ministry as a group of
lawyers that provides legal advice on a nonprofit basis, usually to
government critics.

CJA chief Wilfredo Vallín, who also is advising Sánchez on her case,
took the first step required to register the group in April 2009 by
asking the Justice Ministry's Registry of Associations to certify that
no other group had registered the same name.

The registry never replied so the 1992 graduate of the University of
Havana Law School elevated his request to Justice Minister María Esther
Reus. When she didn't reply, he filed suit under Cuba's Law for Civil,
Administrative and Labor Procedures.

To his surprise, a three-judge panel first officially accepted Vallín's
complaint, and then ordered Reus to appoint lawyers to defend her.
Cuba's highest court, the Supreme Tribunal found a technical fault with
one of his filings last year but allowed the case to continue and later
ordered the minister to reply to Vallín's initial request.

The Justice Ministry certified last June that no other group was
registered with the same name or purpose as the CJA, but earlier this
year it rejected the CJA's application for recognition on technical
grounds. Vallín has vowed to appeal.

Ministry officials had never officially recognized any dissident group,
making them illegal and therefore subject to sanctions for the crime of
"illegal association."

Cuba's justice system argues that the role of the law is to promote
stability and the development of a "socialist society." Dissidents put
on trial are almost always convicted.

Lawyers are required to work for the government or government-approved
Collective Law Offices, where criminal defense attorneys can be hired.
But lawyers who spend too much time defending dissidents are sometimes
fired from the law offices.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/31/2826570/yoani-sanchez-files-demand-against.html