Twenty activists arrested in central Havana

Twenty activists arrested in central Havana / 14ymedio
Posted on December 10, 2014

TranslatingCuba.com note: Updates to this article made after what is
translated below report more arrests, with more details from around the
country.

14ymedio, Havana, 10 December 2014 — The central corner of 23 and L
dawned on Wednesday amid expectation and the utmost vigilance. For days,
the call of the Ladies in White to be in that part of the city to
commemorate Human Rights Day led the Government to activate all its
mechanisms to prevent it.

Last night national television announced a children's activity at the
Coppelia ice cream parlor—located on that corner—a common practice used
by the authorities to neutralize congregations of dissident. So far it
has been reported that twenty opponents have been detained trying to
reach the site, among them are reportedly at least five Ladies in White.

A 14ymedio reporter, present at the site of these incidents, was able to
confirm the arrests of several Ladies in White who began to arrive,
separately, to the well-known corner. At the beginning there were only
people dressed in plainclothes, the so-called "enraged people," awaiting
the activists.

However, as the time of the call to gather approached, several people in
uniform arrived along with police cars. One of the women of the Ladies
in White–a group that defends human rights–who was able to get to the
corner was forced into a police car.

The security agent Carlos Serpa Maceira*, present at the site,
threatened Luz Escobar, one of the reporters of this newspaper, who took
pictures of the arrests. After a brief detention, this journalist has
been released.

The foreign press was also present on the site and several activists
have reported strong vigilance around their homes. The Patriotic Union
of Cuba, in the east of the country, also reported a large police
operation and Special Troops personnel in the villages of Mella and
Palmarito de Cauto. In this latter place the Communist Party organized a
"people's party" dispensing beer to occupy the meeting points of
dissidents in the area.

*Translator's note: Serpa Maceira previously infiltrated the Ladies in
White and acted as their spokesperson, before a "dramatic" unveiling on
national television in which he was offered up as "proof" that the
dissidents lie; this "proof" was based on the logic that, when he was
masquerading as a dissident he lied and the foreign press believed him,
ergo, the dissidents lie.

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