HRF Celebrates Life and Legacy of Laura Pollán‏

Cuba: HRF Celebrates Life and Legacy of Laura Pollán‏
[14-10-2015 23:17:39]
Human Rights Foundation

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (October 14, 2015) — On the
fourth anniversary of her passing, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
invites you to celebrate the life and legacy of Laura Pollán, the
founder of Cuba's Ladies in White, by watching this interview from 2010.
HRF volunteers filmed this only a few months prior to Pollán's abrupt
and mysterious death in a Havana hospital. This short film is one of the
last filmed appearances of Pollán, and was made at a time when the Cuban
dictatorship had a strict travel ban on dissidents — a policy that only
changed in early 2013.
"Laura Pollán's courageous leadership turned the Ladies in White into
the western hemisphere's most eloquent movement of nonviolent resistance
against dictatorship," said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. "While
many of the free world's intellectuals seem to be infatuated with the
prospect of Cuba turning into a pseudo-capitalist dictatorship, it is
vital that the free world continues to bear witness to the ongoing
heroism and resilience of the Ladies in White."

The world-renowned group was formed in March 2003 by the wives, mothers,
sisters, daughters, and supporters of 75 dissidents who were arrested
and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison during a brutal government
crackdown known as the Cuban Black Spring. Upon Pollán's passing, the
women renamed the organization the "Laura Pollán Ladies in White
Association" in posthumous recognition of Pollán's extraordinary
leadership. Rather than shutting down after the conditional release and
forced exile of the last of the Black Spring's prisoners, the Ladies in
White have redoubled their advocacy for democracy in Cuba. Despite
ongoing arrests and beatings by Cuban authorities, the Ladies in White
march every Sunday in different cities in Cuba — dressed in white and
with flowers in hand — to protest the lack of human rights under the
Castro dictatorship. The organization was awarded the 2005 Sakharov
Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2013 Václav Havel International
Prize for Creative Dissent.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit
organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a
focus on closed societies.

Source: Cuba: HRF Celebrates Life and Legacy of Laura Pollán‏ -
Misceláneas de Cuba -
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/561ec6733a682e1734175343#.Vh7RC3qqqkp