Obama Left, Trump Arrived, the Repression Continues

Obama Left, Trump Arrived, the Repression Continues / 14ymedio, Reinaldo
Escobar

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 January 2017 — Within 48 hours of
Donald Trump being declared President of the United States, the
political police maintained their repression against opponents
unchanged. The hard hand of State Security begins to contradict the
claim that "Barack Obama's concessions" to the Plaza of the Revolution
fueled the repressive character of Raúl Castro's government.

According to partial reports issued on Sunday, the political police
detained more than 60 members of the Ladies in White Movement in Havana,
Matanzas, Santa Clara and Ciego de Ávila. Berta Soler and her husband,
the former Black Spring prisoner Angel Moya, were arrested along with 23
women as they prepared to leave the organization's headquarters in the
Lawton neighborhood of Havana.

The repressors did not shake their hands in the face of the scenario of
a new tenant in the White House. They were not even frightened by the
warning issued by the mogul weeks before in his Twitter account, when he
clarified that "if Cuba is not willing to offer a better agreement for
Cubans, Cuban Americans and the American people in general," he would
liquidate the diplomatic normalization.

Despite the hopes of some and the threats of others, the repression
continues and on this Sunday morning more than 30 Ladies in White in
Matanzas were prevented from attending Mass. Some were taken to police
stations, while others were driven to the outskirts of the city and put
out of the cars to find their own way home, and other were driven
home. Two arrests were reported in the city of Santa Clara and another
in Ciego de Ávila.

If there really is any relationship between what the new president says
and does and how the Cuban government decides to treat its opponents,
the next few weeks will have to prove it.

With the thaw or without the thaw, the repressive nature of the Cuban
system remains unchanged. Obama does not seem to be responsible for the
twist in the oppression experienced in the past two years, as perhaps
Trump also fails to alleviate the rigors of a regime that could not
exist where liberties flourish.

Source: Obama Left, Trump Arrived, the Repression Continues / 14ymedio,
Reinaldo Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/obama-left-trump-arrived-the-repression-continues-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/