Somos+ (We Are More) Holds Convention Despite Police Operation

Somos+ (We Are More) Holds Convention Despite Police Operation / 14ymedio
Posted on January 14, 2016

14ymedio, Havana, 14 January 2016 – The Somos+ (We Are More) opposition
movement held its national convention Thursday, despite the arrest of
several participants and a strong police operation around its site in
Havana. The home of Eliecer Avila, leader of the organization, was
surrounded by several police patrols at dawn, and only those who entered
the home several hours or days earlier were able to attend.

Despite the obstacles, Somos+ issued a statement announcing,"We are
holding the convention!" The activists were referring to a meeting held
on 14 January to decide on the program ahead of time. The speeches,
lectures and presentations were digitized to be able to project them in
case their protagonists were not able to arrive at the site.

Groups of government sympathizers, dressed in plain clothes,
threateningly warned off any curious person who wanted to take pictures
around the site, or access the house on Esperanza Street in the Cerro
district, where the event took place.

According to Pedro Acosta, who was prevented from reaching Avila's
house, the police deployment included several patrol cars and
motorcycles. "I was surprised by this display of police force, because I
hadn't noticed any abnormal situation in the neighborhood." A motorcycle
with a sidecar stopped next to Acosta to ask for his identify card. When
he said he wasn't carrying it, the police ordered him, "Get in,
citizen!" In the vehicle, they drove along several streets in Havana and
let him out on 26th Avenue. "And this?" Acosta asked them, continuing
his story, "They started up and the one driving addressed me for the
first time telling me that next time I wouldn't forget my ID card."

At seven in the evening the siege on Avila's house continues, according
to what he himself told Acosta by phone.

The police also intercepted Angel Santiesteban and prevented him from
reaching the house, said Avila.

In the text released this Thursday, the leadership of Somos+ explains
that they tried to rent a space for their most important annual meeting.
However, those in charge of the locales – both state and private – were
intimidated by State Security and so would not rent to them.

Several members of the movement who live outside the capital were
threatened and, in several cases, arrested to prevent them from
traveling to Havana. Among these was Johana Columbie, who lives in
Camaguey and who, with police stationed outside her house, sent a letter
to the convention ensuring them that the recent events, rather than
frightening her, had given her "strength to continue."

Other activists such as Alexey Games and Franky Rojas received police
summonses received this morning, while the movement coordinator in the
province of Las Tunas, Pedro Escalona, ​​was arrested and released just
a few hours ago.

Eliecer Avila and Manuel Diaz Mons, general coordinator of Somos+ were
arbitrarily detained and warned not to hold the convention.

On its digital page, the movement thanked Amnesty International – in
particular Louise Tillotson, investigator for Cuba and the Caribbean –
for having contacted their members and for showing concern in the face
of the latest developments.

The convention had as its central theme "how to live with the internet
in Cuba so as not to have to emigrate, not to have to jump into the sea,
or cross so many borders, without having the power within Cuba to run
businesses, labor cooperatives, produce resources," according to Avila.

Source: Somos+ (We Are More) Holds Convention Despite Police Operation /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/somos-we-are-more-holds-convention-despite-police-operation-14ymedio/