Marta Beatriz Roque

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Cuban political dissident (born 1945)

title: "Marta Beatriz Roque" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1945-births", "amnesty-international-prisoners-of-conscience-held-by-cuba", "cuban-democracy-activists", "cuban-dissidents", "cuban-human-rights-activists", "women-human-rights-activists", "living-people", "opposition-to-fidel-castro", "cuban-prisoners-and-detainees", "black-spring-detainees", "recipients-of-the-international-women-of-courage-award"] description: "Cuban political dissident (born 1945)" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marta_Beatriz_Roque" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Cuban political dissident (born 1945) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameMarta Beatriz Roque Cabello
imageMarta Beatriz Roque.jpg
birth_date16 May 1945
occupationeconomist
known_fordissident politics, imprisonment
organizationAssembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba
awardsHeinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award (2002)
::

|name = Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello |image = Marta Beatriz Roque.jpg |birth_date = 16 May 1945 |birth_place = |occupation = economist |spouse = |children = |website = |known_for = dissident politics, imprisonment |organization = Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba |awards = Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award (2002) Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello (born 16 May 1945) is a Cuban political dissident. She is an economist by training and the founder and director of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists. Agence France-Presse described her in 2007 as Cuba's "leading woman dissident".

The Group of Four

In 1997, Roque, Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano published a paper titled "The Homeland Belongs to All," which discussed Cuba's human rights situation and called for political and economic reforms. They also called for a boycott of elections in Cuba's one-party system and for investors to avoid Cuba, giving several news conferences to discuss their concerns.

The four were detained without trial for nineteen months. The four were then tried for sedition in March 1999 in a one-day trial closed to foreign press. The US, EU, Canada, and the Vatican all called for her release. and was released in May 2002.

Other members of the Group of Four were released around the same time. In November 2000, the four published another essay, titled "Social Facets", as President Fidel Castro attended a summit in Panama. The essay stated that Cuban education was designed to indoctrinate children, that many children were malnourished from food shortages, and that foreigners in Cuba were allowed privileges such as cars, computers, and cell phones that ordinary Cuban people were not.

Later activism

In March 2003, she and other dissidents lobbied the EU not to sign a trade agreement with Cuba until its human rights record improved. She also began a hunger strike calling for the release of political prisoners.

She was arrested the same month along with 74 other dissidents in what some have called the "Black Spring" crackdown. On 3 April 2003, Roque was brought to trial and convicted in a one-day trial. PEN International reported that she and the other defendants were given insufficient time to prepare a case. and Roque's sister Isabel was invited to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. to discuss the case.

Reports stated that Roque lost 30 lb while imprisoned from vomiting and diarrhea and was hospitalized in July 2003. On 22 July 2004,

In 2005, Roque founded the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba (Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil en Cuba), serving as the organization's director. Varela Project organizer Oswaldo Payá feuded with Roque over the group's formation, accusing her of collaborating with security forces to justify a further crackdown. Wayne Smith, a former chief of the US Interests Section in Havana, criticized her group as seeming "virtually to operate out of the U.S. Interests Section", arguing that this weakened her credibility with Cubans.

She was detained again on 27 September 2007 when she was forced onto a bus during a rally at Cuba's Justice Ministry building. Police reportedly informed her that they were protecting her from "the wrath of the people".

Roque refuses to leave Cuba, stating, "We need enough space in our society and we are working for this. We need to make a hole inside the government to live, to think, to talk ... We need to be here. Me in particular. I don't want to live out of my country. This is my country and my country needs what we do."

In 2012, she participated in a hunger strike in support of human rights in Cuba. The official Cuban media denied her participation by showing a video in which she accepted food from a neighbor. The Government used the video to demonstrate the dissidents' lack of credibility on the Island.

She maintains a profound difference with dissident Rosa María Paya Acevedo, daughter of former dissident Oswaldo Paya, accusing her of making a profit with her father's memory and carrying out activism abroad, thus protected from the repressions of the Cuban Government.

Prizes

She is a recipient of the 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award of the New York Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Canadian, English, and Finnish PEN.

She is a recipient of the 2024 International Women of Courage Award.

References

References

  1. (September 27, 2007). "Cuba detains at least 21 dissidents: activist".
  2. (June 27, 1997). "The Homeland Belongs to Us All". Cubanet.
  3. (May 16, 2000). "Second Cuban dissident freed". BBC News.
  4. (May 24, 2000). "Third Cuban dissident freed". BBC News.
  5. (May 2, 1998). "Cuba's Imprisoned Dissidents". The New York Times.
  6. (March 2, 1999). "World Is Watching Havana Trial Of Cubans Who Criticized System". South Florida Sun Sentinel.
  7. (14 September 1999). "Rehearing An Important Concession". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
  8. (May 17, 2000). "Remember Those Still In Prison". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
  9. (18 November 2000). "Castro charge sparks arrests". BBC News.
  10. (March 13, 2003). "Dissidents lobby EU against Cuba". BBC News.
  11. (March 22, 2003). "Cuba urged to end crackdown". BBC.
  12. "Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello (1945)".
  13. (April 24, 2007). "UA 97/07 Fear for safety/Fear of arbitrary detention". [[Amnesty International]].
  14. Rafael Lorente. (May 21, 2003). "President: No Changes On Cuba". South Florida Sun Sentinel.
  15. (18 March 2005). "Prisoners of conscience: 71 longing for freedom". Amnesty International.
  16. (November 27, 2006). "Marta Beatriz Roque". English PEN.
  17. (May 21, 2005). "Cuba dissidents debate democracy". BBC News.
  18. Wayne S. Smith. (August 6, 2005). "'Last Throes' Only In Eye Of Delusional Bush". South Florida Sun Sentinel.
  19. Daniel Schweimler. (19 March 2001). "Cuba's local dissidents speak out". BBC News.
  20. (September 25, 2002). "2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights Awards". New York Academy of Sciences.
  21. (1 March 2024). "Cuban political dissident to receive 2024 International Women of Courage award by US government". AP News.

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