CUBA DETAINED ALMOST 1,000 DISSIDENTS IN JUNE, TORTURED POLITICAL PRISONERS

CUBA DETAINED ALMOST 1,000 DISSIDENTS IN JUNE, TORTURED POLITICAL PRISONERS
by FRANCES MARTEL 2 Jul 2014

While many in the mainstream media push the narrative that Cuba's
communist government is somehow more "open" than in the past, the Cuban
government is exploiting that good will to violently detain and torture
political dissidents. According to one NGO, 963 dissidents were
arbitrarily arrested in June.
The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an NGO
dedicated to reporting on the torture and oppression of anti-communist
thought in Cuba, revealed in its monthly report that 963 individuals
were arrested for political reasons in June. While this number is
smaller than record-setting May, when 1,120 Cuban citizens are arrested
for political reasons, the alarming rate of detention indicates that the
Cuban government has no interest in a more-liberated society.
Several individual cases of arrests stand out. Serial hunger striker and
Sakharov Prize winner Guillermo Fariñas was arrested, according to the
group, "almost every Monday of June ... to impede scheduled meetings of
his organization." Fariñas has attempted to schedule meetings with
dissidents to organize a movement against the government and has used
Twitter to chronicle the beatings that he has received as the government
attempts to break up those weekly meetings. On this past Monday--the
last in June--Fariñas tweeted a photo of what appear to be stab wounds
on his arms, from Cuban police:

The Cuban Human Rights Commission reported that Fariñas was also
tortured while detained by "being confined in extremely cold temperatures."
Two other famous dissidents, Jorge Luís García Pérez (known as Antúnez)
and his wife, Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, were arrested this month yet
again, only to be confined later to house arrest for
counterrevolutionary activities. Like many, Antúnez was arrested
specifically on the charge of "public disorder," a catch-all for anyone
daring to criticize the government in public.
In addition to those arrested in June, the international community has
added to its list of Cuban political prisoners David Bustamante, an LGBT
rights activist arrested in May for public disorder after taking to a
rooftop and calling for an end to LGBT discrimination by the Castro
regime, which has a long history of attempting to "eradicate" such
behavior through mass murder and oppression. To suppress the reality of
LGBT individuals in Cuba, the Castro regime has routinely paraded out
Mariela Castro, daughter of dictator Raúl, who claims to be an LGBT
advocate despite being an inextricable part of the regime.
Below is a video of Bustamante's crime: inciting a crowd to chant
against the Castro regime:

The government of Cuba is not only a serial abuser of human rights, but
a mainstay on the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism,
due to its support of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a
Marxist terror cell known for its kidnappings, drug links, and harrowing
violence.

Source: Cuba Detained Almost 1,000 Dissidents in June, Tortured
Political Prisoners -
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/02/Cuba-Arbitrarily-Detained-Almost-1-000-Dissidents-in-June-Tortured-Political-Prisoners