Berta Soler announces recall referendum on her tenure as head of the Ladies in White

Berta Soler announces recall referendum on her tenure as head of the
Ladies in White / 14ymedio
Posted on February 23, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2015 — During a press conference this
afternoon, Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, announced that a
recall referendum would be held within the organization to define her
continuity at the head of this Human Rights movement.

Surrounded fifty Ladies in White, Soler read a statement to several
foreign correspondents and independent media gathered near the Church of
Santa Rita, in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar.

According to the activist, she will submit her leadership at the head of
the organization to a recall referendum. The date of the consultation
will be this coming March 16, but she did not detail how the procedure
would be carried out.

In her statement, Berta Soler also invited the Ladies in White living in
Miami who signed a letter last week asking for her resignation to
"return to Cuba to fight."

In a letter published last Wednesday by the newspaper El Nuevo Herald,
several founders of the Ladies in White in exile felt that the group
needed a new direction and requested the resignation of Soler. According
to the newspaper, 16 members of the organization in the United States
defended Alejandrina Garcia de la Riva, another member of the group in
disagreement with Soler.

At the conclusion of the press conference on Sunday, the Ladies in White
cheered Berta Soler and chanted her name.

Soler explained that today's march was dedicated to Orlando Zapata
Tamayo, an activist who died in February 2010 after a prolonged hunger
strike. The leader of the Ladies in White also said that once the press
conference ended, the women would continue their pilgrimage beyond
Avenida Quintera towards the neighborhood of Vedado.

This newspaper was able to confirm that minutes after crossing the Calle
Linea tunnel, an act of repudiation was carried out against the Ladies
in White who, for fifteen minutes, were surrounded by people carrying
posters with official slogans and screaming out against them. The women
were then forced into several buses waiting near the site and driven off
to a unknown destination.

Source: Berta Soler announces recall referendum on her tenure as head of
the Ladies in White / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/berta-soler-announces-recall-referendum-on-her-tenure-as-head-of-the-ladies-in-white-14ymedio/