Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day

Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas
Posted on December 11, 2013

The Cuban government has cracked down hard on dissidents who dared to go
out on December 10th, the day when the world celebrated Human Rights
Day, according to sources from the island who have posted on the social
networks.

In Baracoa, Jorge Feria Jardinez and Roneidis Leyva Salas, activists
with the Eastern Democratic Alliance (ADO) and the John Paul the 2nd
Movement, were arrested while distributing leaflets about this issue,
said Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, ADO Coordinator, in his Twitter account
(@ Lobainacuba).

On the same social network, Lobaina reported arrests, beatings, and acts
of repudiation in locations around Buenaventura, with the detention of
Nelson Avila Almaguer, Ramón Aguilera, Jorge Carmenate, and Nirma Peña,
all four with ADO. He added that activists were stationed in front of
the town's police station demanding the release of their brothers in the
cause. In the same province, but in the village of Velazco in the
municipality of Gibara, paramilitary mobs in coordination with State
Security and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) attacked the house
of activist Damaris García, fired tear gas, and beat and arrested
peaceful activists.

Among those arrested with Damaris were Marta Alina Rodríguez Pérez,
Walfrido Pérez García and Gelasio Pupo Verdecia, all from the same
opposition alliance.

In the capital arrests occurred when activists, artists, and other
members of the independent civil society tried to reach the headquarters
of the Estado de Sats Project, led by Antonio Rodiles. According to the
twitter account of Ailer María (@ ailermaria), his wife and arts
coordinator of the project, they had learned of more than a dozen
arrests that occurred starting on December 9th when participants in the
1st International Conference on Human Rights tried to approach the site.
The venue was harassed by an act of repudiation, a military siege, and a
"revolutionary act" by the well-known orchestra "Arnaldo y su talisman,"
according to reports arriving from Havana. Other groups suffered
persecution, harassment, and abuse at their homes.

Bertah Soler, leader of the Ladies in White and 2005 Sakharov Prize
winner, was arrested along with her husband, Angel Moya Acosta, when she
had summoned her members and the entire civil society to march and
gather on the corner of 23rd and L, across from the Coppelia ice cream
parlor. Those who made it were violently arrested and transported to
remote places; Soler was taken to the village of Tarara.

On the morning of December 10th, President Raul Castro attended the
funeral of South African president Nelson Mandela. He was greeted with
an unanticipated "handshake" by U.S. President Barack Obama, who said in
his speech: "There are leaders who support Mandela and do not tolerate
dissent," a clear allusion to the Cuban dictator and to the President of
Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, also present at the gathering.

Translated by Tomás A.

11 December 2013

Source: "Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-without-rights-on-human-rights-day-luis-felipe-rojas/