Wave Of Arrests Against Activists Seeking To Prevent A Youth Congress

Wave Of Arrests Against Activists Seeking To Prevent A Youth Congress /
14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 3 July 2016 – This Sunday several independent
organizations are holding the first Cuban Youth Congress in the city of
Santiago de Cuba, under heavy police pressure and after dozens of
arrests. Among those arrested is the activist from the Patriotic Union
of Cuba (UNPACU) Amel Carlos Oliva, who was arrested last Thursday,
according to sources from UNPACU.

Oliva’s family and friends told 14ymedio that they lost telephone
contact with the dissident hours after he met in Havana with Eliecer
Avila, president of the Movement Somos+ (We Are More), an organization
also participating in the youth event.

Oliva returned from Washington the same day he was detained and,
according to the leader of the UNPACU, Jose Daniel Ferrer, was
“kidnapped by the repressive forces” as he traveled from the Cuban
capital to the east.

Since Saturday some members of both organizations were also victims of
arbitrary detention, while others were subject to strong police
operations around their homes. However, a few managed to reach the
Santiago headquarters of UNPACU, where the Congress is now taking place.

Joanna Columbié, a member of Somos+, was arrested on the outskirts of
the meeting. She managed to report her arrest by telephone, seconds
before being put in the police car. According to reports from the
organizations involved in the Congress, more than a hundred activists
have been arrested.

The wave of arrests on Sunday is the continuation of the dozens of
arrests from the day before, when several members of UNPACU were
violently arrested while protesting to demand the immediate release of
Carlos Amel Oliva.

Source: Wave Of Arrests Against Activists Seeking To Prevent A Youth
Congress / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba –
translatingcuba.com/wave-of-arrests-against-activists-seeking-to-prevent-a-youth-congress-14ymedio/