Cuba’s Ladies in White Repressed on Their Sunday March Today

Cuba's Ladies in White Repressed on Their Sunday March Today / 14ymedio
Posted on June 14, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 14 June 2015 — Security forces have lashed out against
the Ladies in White this Sunday, as they have on the previous ten
Sundays. This time they carried out several preventive arrests among the
activists who often accompany the Ladies in White in their march on 5th
Avenue, at the end of the Mass at Santa Rita Church in Miramar.

According to information provided by a 14ymedio reporter present at the
site, 61 Ladies in White and 18 men, among them activists and
independent journalists, attended the Mass.

Arrested before arriving were photographer Claudio Fuentes, independent
journalist Juan González Febles and activists Agustín López Canino and
Hugo Damian. Also reported, at 11:30 am, were the arrest of four Ladies
in White and 8 men to prevent them from arriving at the church.

After the conclusion of the Mass, at the corner of 5th and 30th, a
police patrol made up of uniformed men and woman violently arrested
Jacqueline Boni as she tried to join the march. Meanwhile, Agustin Lopez
was released about two in the afternoon and wrote in his Twitter
account, "I was just released, incredibly they neither handcuffed me nor
beat me but they violated my rights." This newspaper was able to confirm
that the security forces arrested a total of 68 people, including Ladies
in White and other activists.

Today marks the 640th Sunday of marches by the Ladies in White along a
stretch of 5th Avenue in Miramar, at the end of Mass at Santa Rita
Church, which is located at 5th and 24th in the Miramar neighborhood.
The first march occurred on 30 March 2003, when the arrests of the 75
opposition figures of the so-called "Black Spring" — carried out earlier
that same month — were still recent.

On the previous nine Sundays, after "allowing" the walk along the
avenue's boulevard, there have been acts of repudiation and arrests,
some of them with notable violence.

Arrests for political reasons nationwide nearly doubled in May as
compared to April. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation counted a total of 641 arrests for political reasons, the
highest monthly figure in the last ten months.

Source: Cuba's Ladies in White Repressed on Their Sunday March Today /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cubas-ladies-in-white-repressed-on-their-sunday-march-14ymedio/