Dozens Of Activists Detained To Prevent Them From Attending Pope’s Mass

Dozens Of Activists Detained To Prevent Them From Attending Pope's Mass
/ 14ymedio
Posted on September 20, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2015 — Opposition groups have reported
dozens of arrests during the late night and morning hours of Sunday, to
prevent many activists from attending Pope Francis's Mass at the Plaza
of the Revolution. The number of people arrested could exceed thirty,
according to Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for
Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

Among those arrested are four activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba
(UNPACU), Zacchaeo Baez, Mary J. Sardinas, Boris I. Reñe and Aymara
Nieto, who managed to reach the square and at least two of them
approached Pope Francis and managed to talk to him about the violation
of human rights in Cuba and political prisoners, a UNPACU source told
this newspaper.

In images that have already begun to circulate on the Internet, we sees
security services detain opponents who could have been taken to the
fourth police station, located in the Cerro municipality, where they are
also holding the blogger Agustin Lopez and his sister Ada Lopez.

Just outside the Ladies in White's new headquarters in the Lawton
neighborhood, in the very early hours of today, twenty Ladies in White
were arrested when they left to go to the Plaza of the Revolution,
including their leader Berta Soler. Also detained with there were the
dissidents Angel Moya, Antonio Gonzalez Rodiles and Jose Daniel Ferrer.
The latter reported via Twitter that "They took me handcuffed behind my
back to the police station at Regla."

The UNPACU leader, said, "Later, again handcuffed behind my back they
released me again in front of the Bus and Truck Terminal that transports
passengers to Oriente and other provinces east of the capital." Ferrer
added that in Santiago de Cuba "political police deployed special forces
to suppress any solidarity action."

At the center of the country, in the province of Villa Clara, at least
25 activisits belonging to various organizations attempted to board a
vehicle to travel to Havana. The police stopped them and hours later
they were taken to their homes where they remain under heavy surveillance.

For her part, the regime opponent Martha Beatriz Roque was again invited
this Sunday to meet with Pope Francis, this time at the Havana
Cathedral. The invitation was communicated to her personally by the
secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature who seemed stunned by the arrest
that she had suffered yesterday when trying to comply with a similar
invitation. Also invited to this afternoon's meeting is the independent
journalist Miriam Leiva.

Source: Dozens Of Activists Detained To Prevent Them From Attending
Pope's Mass / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/dozens-of-activists-detained-to-prevent-them-from-attending-popes-mass-14ymedio/