The Ladies in White Live through Another Day of Repression

The Ladies in White Live through Another Day of Repression / 14ymedio
Posted on September 13, 2015

14ymedio.com, Havana, 13 September 2015 – This Sunday, 42 Ladies in
White, accompanied by 21 activists from different political groups,
walked down Havana’s Fifth Avenue, in the Miramar neighborhood.
Finishing their usual route and subsequent meeting in Gandhi Park, next
to Santa Rita Parish, the group was arrested by police and other
plain-clothes forces, according to reports to 14ymedio by several
eyewitnesses.

Together with the women from the human rights movement were other
opposition figures such as Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic
Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and Antonio Gonzalez Rodiles from the opposition
group Estado de Sats. The current whereabouts of those arrested is
unknown, and their cell phones give the message “turned off or out of
area.” However, the leader of UNPACU, Jose Daniel Ferrer, has been set free.

The Ladies in White had carried several banners demanding amnesty for
political prisoners. A demand that has been the focus of attention for
several opposition groups and that has gained strength before the
upcoming visit by Pope Francis to the Island.

This week the Cuban government announced the pardon of 3,522 prisoners
on the occasion of the Pontiff’s arrival in Cuba. Nevertheless, the
opposition has criticized the fact that the list of pardoned prisoners
does not include activists jailed for political reasons.

Elizardo Sanchez, who heads the National Human Rights and Reconciliation
Commission, said in an interview with EFE that there are at least 60
people imprisoned “for political reasons or through politically
conditioned proceedings.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Source: The Ladies in White Live through Another Day of Repression /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba –
http://translatingcuba.com/the-ladies-in-white-live-through-another-day-of-repression-14ymedio/