Cuba: two protests, several arrests

The Damas de Blanco returned to the news on the blogs of the Cuban diaspora. As one of the dissident groups oldest and most respected of the island, their peaceful protests, and the continued arrests by the repressive forces of the government, continue to call attention. A recent clash occurred last week when the group tried to hold two protests in Havana.

The blog Pieces of the island, which recorded the events through images , relates:

Despite state repression, about 40 Ladies in White in Havana held their usual march to the church of Santa Rita on Sunday June 17th, Fathers Day. When the Mass ended, these women decided to surprise their oppressors and marched for the second time in a day, this time from Infanta to the group's headquarters in Neptune.

The same site also published two entries on the government's actions against members of the group. The first relates what happened with Caridad Caballero Batista with her ​​husband and son, who were searched and arrested:

After visiting family ... they were intercepted by the political police to reach the province of Holguin. According to Caballero, the police officer who intercepted the vehicle that your family ... asked the driver's documents.

However, the activist explains, "but to ask for documentation that the driver was intentionally to register you to Stephen the suitcase he was carrying, which was full of clothes."

The agent ordered Stephen to get off the vehicle to requisarlo, to which the opposition said it would not allow it "was not a criminal." Knight noted that "the agents were furious and told Stephen that he was committing a crime."

The effective response was riding in a vehicle Sandez Stephen guard to direct operations to a police station, where it would be reported and arrested. Seeing this, Charity Knight and his son Eric Sandoz got out of the vehicle and protested against the arbitrary, aseverándoles agents that if they took Stephen, would also have to take them to them.

In just a few minutes, the three activists were taken to a police station located on the outskirts of Havana.

After several hours the family was released, but on arriving at his home in the city of Holguin, realized that the political police had mounted the usual operating on weekends to prevent them from reaching the Sunday mass.

One of the methods used [in] by the repressive forces to stop the group's activities has been to hinder the attendance at the Masses .

The second publication [in] describes the arrest of a lady who is part of the cluster:

To this day parents, across Cuba's Ladies in White were mobilized for the purpose of peaceful activities to commemorate the date. As a result, the regime's police responded with a repressive operation that began days ago, which resulted in the arrest of a number of these women in all provinces of the island. Among those arrested was one of Blanca Hernandez Moya, 75 years old, who suffered physical attacks in the hands of police officers ...

The old, Hernández Moya, was heading from his home in central Havana headquarters of the Ladies in White-house of the late Laura Pollan, located in Neptune Street when he was violently intercepted by the state police.

"I ran over a lot," said Moya, "I got into a car and a woman (agent) turned me an arm and hit me."

After several minutes, the vehicle was introduced where the White Lady left abandoned in a dam near Penalver, a mountain area outside the Cotorro.

Capitol Hill Cubans [at] also recounted the arrests of the week.

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Translated by Daiana Cabrera · View original post [en] · Comments (0)
Share it: Meneame · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper