Human Rights Fundation condena las agresiones a las Damas de Blanco en Cuba

Cuba: HRF Condemns Ongoing Attacks Against the Ladies in White. 

NEW YORK (August 7, 2013)-The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the ongoing attacks made against the Cuban civil society group the Ladies in White. The most recent incident occurred on July 14, as the group performed a peaceful Sunday march for freedom and human rights after visiting the church of San José de Colón in Matanzas Province. A group of government supporters cut off the protest and proceeded to beat and harass the group members, striking and shouting insults at the 12 female members of the group.

Sayli Navarro, a group member who took part in the march on July 14, stated that after the mob attacked the peaceful protest, the Ladies took refuge in the home of one of the group members, where "the mob gathered outside her house" and "they began to carry out an 'act of repudiation,'" throwing objects at the women and shouting insults.

On August 4, the Ladies in White asked Dionisio García Ibáñez, the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, to intervene on their behalf and request that the Cuban government stop the regime's repressive actions against them.

That same day, while a group of Ladies attended mass in the southeastern city of Cárdenas, a crowd of government supporters gathered outside the church and waited for the members to come out. However, the Ladies were able to elude the mob and return to their homes unharmed.

"These recent events remind us that the campaign of harassment, persecution, hostility, and threats against the Ladies in White is an ongoing pattern of militant behavior sponsored and directed by the Casto regime," said HRF president Thor Halvorssen. "These brave women face persecution, attacks, and arrests every Sunday during their peaceful protest. Their deplorable treatment at the hands of the government and its supporters underscores the fact that the story of 'reform' peddled by the Cuban government is fiction circulated by the Castro brothers."

The Ladies in White ("Las Damas de Blanco") is a Cuban civil society organization founded by the wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters of political prisoner jailed during the Castro regime's "Black Spring" crackdown in 2003. Group members wear white to symbolize their commitment to a peaceful struggle for freedom. Despite repeated arrests and beatings by Cuban authorities, the group marches every Sunday in different locations around Cuba to protest human rights violations under the Castro dictatorship. Berta Soler has led the group since the death of founder Laura Pollán in 2011.

On May 15, 2013, the Ladies in White-represented by Soler-were honored with the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. The ceremony was held during the fifth annual Oslo Freedom Forum, HRF's flagship human rights summit, in Norway.

HRF is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that protects and promotes human rights globally, with an expertise in the Americas. We believe that all human beings are entitled to freedom of self-determination, freedom from tyranny, the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries; HRF's ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. HRF does not support nor condone violence. HRF's International Council includes human rights advocates George Ayittey, Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso, Garry Kasparov, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.

Contact: Jamie Hancock - Human Rights Foundation, (212) 246.8486, jamie@thehrf.org

Human Rights Fundation condena las agresiones a las Damas de Blanco en Cuba

07-08-2013 / 20:20 h EFE

La organización Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condenó hoy las "constantes" agresiones que sufre el grupo disidente cubano Damas de Blanco.
"Estas valientes mujeres personifican de la manera más pura la fortaleza, la determinación, el coraje y la persistencia de quienes sufren la represión de un gobierno totalitario", dijo el presidente de HRF, Thor Halvorssen.
Una de las últimas agresiones que según HRF sufrieron las "Damas de Blanco fue el pasado 14 de julio cuando doce de ellas fueron insultadas y golpeadas por un "turba progubernamental" en la provincia de Matanza.
El pasado 4 de agosto, el grupo disidente pidió al arzobispo de Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, que intercediera por ellas y pidiera al Gobierno cubano detener las agresiones.
Las Damas de Blanco agrupan a los familiares de 75 disidentes cubanos detenidos en marzo de 2003 durante la llamada Primavera Negra.
Desde entonces, las esposas, madres y otras familiares de esos opositores denuncian de manera pacífica la situación de los presos políticos y exigen su libertad.
Todos ellos han salido ya de prisión y muchos se exiliaron a España, mientras que a los que quedan en la isla se les ha denegado el pasaporte.
Berta Soler lidera el grupo desde 2011, después de la muerte de Laura Pollán, la fundadora del movimiento, que recibió en mayo pasado el Premio Václav Havel a la Disidencia Creativa de HRF

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