What Happened in “The Bivouac”?

What Happened in "The Bivouac"? / Michel Iroy Rodriguez
Posted on October 19, 2013

HAVANA, Cuba, October 18, 2013, Michel Iroy Rodriguez /
www.cubanet.org.- At the detention center known as "The Bivouac," near
Calabazar, on the border between the capital municipalities of Arroyo
Naranjo and Boyeros, and Cattle Arroyo Naranjo, a repressive wave of
arbitrary arrests launched by State Security between the 11th and 14th
of this month, just before the second anniversary of the death of
Laura Pollán Toledo on the 14th, resulted in the jailing of 46
opponents, in dubious circumstances.

From the early hours of Friday the 11th, until Sunday, State Security
agents were arresting Ladies in White, regime opponents, human rights
activists and independent journalists, so that they would not be able to
attend the second anniversary mass for the death of Laura Pollán, nor
participate in the usual Ladies in White Sunday March from Santa Rita
Church in Miramar.

In protest against the arbitrary arrests, 23 detainees in "The Bivouac"
went on hunger strike and all refused to be indicted on charges by the
officers of Villa Marista (headquarters of the State Security). During
the interrogations they were subjected to they received threats from
officials from the political police.

David Aguila Montero, director of the Social Agency of Independent
Journalists of Cuba (ASPI), who was detained from Friday the 11th and
who was one of those who declared a hunger strike, said that the
treatment of those arrested was deplorable. He spoke of activists with
illnesses who were prevented from taking their medication or who were
given it off schedule.

During the three days he was held, Aguila Montero claims to have seen 34
male regime opponents in "The Bivouac,"many of them from other
provinces, and 9 Ladies in White, including Niurka Luque who, he said,
had a wound on her face that looked like it was made with a knife when
she was arrested .

After more than 92 hours, the detainees were released, but the
whereabouts of 4 activists from the province of Pinar del Rio were
unknown at the time of writing this information.

Michel Iroy Rodriguez, yeikosuri11@gmail.com

From Cubanet, 18 October 2013

Source: "What Happened in "The Bivouac"? / Michel Iroy Rodriguez |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/what-happened-in-the-bivouac-michel-iroy-rodriguez/