More Than a Hundred Activists Arrested in Santiago de Cuba

More Than a Hundred Activists Arrested in Santiago de Cuba / 14ymedio
Posted on March 17, 2015

14ymedio, Santiago de Cuba, 15 March 2015 — On Sunday morning over one
hundred activists, mostly belonging to the Patriotic Union of Cuba
(UNPACU) and Citizens for Democracy (CxD), were arrested while trying to
reach the Sanctuary of Cobre. Among those arrested was Jose Daniel
Ferrer, executive secretary of the UNPACU and former prisoner of the
Group of 75.

José Daniel Ferrer told 14ymedio that since last Friday organization
members started moving towards the Sanctuary of Cobre, so the political
police mobilized in the street from that time to prevent them from
reaching the Catholic church.

This Sunday, starting at dawn and coming from various parts of Santiago
de Cuba, more than 130 activists headed to the Sanctuary of Cobre in
order to ask the Virgin of Charity, patroness of Cuba, for the release
of all political prisoners.

Only 19 managed to reach the Sanctuary and just over a hundred were
retained in the Control Point on the Highway to Cobre, said Ferrer. At
that point the political police identified the private trucks
transporting the activists and prevented them from continuing their
journey, in collaboration with uniformed members of the National
Revolutionary Police (PNR).

After noon, this newspaper was able to confirm that most of the
activists had been released including opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer.

UNPACU has denounced being victims, over the past 30 days, of over 400
arbitrary arrests.

Source: More Than a Hundred Activists Arrested in Santiago de Cuba /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/more-than-a-hundred-activists-arrested-in-santiago-de-cuba-14ymedio/