Regime agents beat up and arrest Ladies in White threatening them with knifings and other activists with death. These threats need to be taken seriously because over the past year they have followed through committing barbaric acts against nonviolent activists.
This past weekend, state security unleashed a crackdown across Cuba attacking the Cuban Ladies in White in Colón, Cárdenas, and in the province of Matanzas. Over twitter the reports arrived describing arrests, beatings, death threats, a fractured rib, and activists pricked with needles by regime agents.
The following are highlights of tweets about what took place beginning in the early hours of Sunday, July 14, 2013:
None of this should be a surprise it was announced ahead of time on July 9, 2013, when Lady in White Bertha Guerrero was threatened by an exasperated state security agent. The regime representative told her that the orders have been given to liquidate the Ladies in White by July 26, 2013. This was tweeted over the internet by former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya.
The Castro regime has been at war with the Ladies in White since they first came into existence in March of 2003. Cuban government agents have slandered the women, carried out beatings, made death threats, pricked members of the Ladies in White with needles, and on October 14, 2011 the founder and leader of the Ladies in White Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died under suspicious circumstances. This is a war being waged against the Ladies in White.
Nevertheless, the Ladies in White who identify themselves as nonviolent human rights defenders have proven resilient to the varied regime attacks precisely because they are nonviolent and have had a long term strategic vision of achieving their end goal: a Cuba were human rights are respected and where there are no more prisoners of conscience.
Unfortunately, the failure of the international media to be able to cover what is happening in Cuba in a timely manner has provided the dictatorship with more room to operate in a brutal and repressive fashion. It has shifted tactics and upped the ante with a policy of increasing violence while at the same time seeking to sow division within the Ladies in White to destroy the movement.
They will fail because the alternative media will take up the slack and these women now through social media can get their message out to the rest of the world. The images of brutalized women can no longer be disappeared as easily as it once was.
However, now is the time for women's groups around the world to demonstrate their solidarity and stand with Cuban women battling to have their own voice and power base on the island.
Raul Castro is reforming the system but only to make it a more efficient and effective totalitarian dictatorship. Independent attorney Lauritza Diversent, based in Havana revealed in a July 1, 2013 report to CubaNet that the reform of the penal code radically expands the power of the police to be judge, jury, and executioner in Cuba:
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| Beaten by regime agents in December 2012. Needed nearly 30 stitches |
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| 15 year old girl repeatedly knifed in November 2012 for verbally defending Ladies in White |
At 7:21 am Angel Moya@jangelmoya reported over twitter:#Cuba Repressive forces maintain cumbersome operation deployed in Pinar del Rio aimed @ impeding Ladies in White move to Havana
At 7:29am Angel Moya@jangelmoya reports:#Cuba Arrested in Pinar del Rio#Ladies in White Marelis Diaz, Amparo Morejon, Rosa Rdgz, Analuiza Santana, Reina Madera, Raquel y Dianelis Rdgz
At 7:34am reports that Lady in White Ladies in White, Isabel Borge was also arrested.
At 10:13am Angel Moya@jangelmoya reports: Repressive forces nationalize operations against Ladies in White: arrests, homes under siege and brutal repression
At 11:20am Sayli Navarro@SayliNavarro reports: They warn us about 3 buses of paramilitary repressors, around 20 state and patrol cars circling church and surroundings
At 11:53am Sayli Navarro@SayliNavarro reports: Mob directed by known State Security officials waited for 12 Ladies in White & 13 brothers, in Mesa street corner of Bartolome Maso
At 12:31pm Sayli Navarro@SayliNavarro#Cuba reports: 11 Ladies in White in#Cardenas ended up beaten and arrested today at the Church exit. Some already released.
At 12:33pm the Ladies in White posted recording by Caridad Burunate narrating Castroite repression in Colon via#soundcloud http://soundcloud.com/user174183585/caridad-burunate-narra?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=mshare&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=http://
At 1:20pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre reported: They just freed me, they took me to a town of Matanzas called 6 de Agosto. They hit me a lot in the stomach & on my back
At 1:22pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre tweeted: When they hit me they told me: "We are waiting for the orders to kill all of you."
At 2:28pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre#Cuba reported: Félix Navarro@felixncuba returns from hospital, x-eays and doctor confirm fractured rib due to beating.
At 2:34pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre#Cuba 11 Ladies in White arrested who attended mass in Cárdenas. Leticia Ramos, Ladies in White leader in Matanzas badly beaten
At 3:22pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre#Cuba tweets photo of Lázaro Diaz Sánchez moments after beating by thugs. Photo courtesy of@COliveraCuba pic.twitter.com/g1gqnPV3wS
At 10:32pm Sayli Navarro
Lázaro Diaz Sánchez @SayliNavarro tweets#Cuba Ladies in White Leticia Ramos and Marisol Fdez and also activist Javier Erbello pricked with needles today in#Cardenas
On July 15, 2013 at 5:24pm Sayli Navarro@SayliNavarro tweeted#Cuba " If you return next Sunday we will knife you" said Belkis and another, in blue uniforms, to Elizabeth, a Lady in White
On July 16, 2013 at 4:48pm Ivan Hernandez Carrillo@ivanlibre#Cuba This is Joaquín Lt Colonel of political police who said: "We are waiting for orders to kill all of you." pic.twitter.com/5264DtghUc
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| "Joaquín" Lt. Colonel of political police |
None of this should be a surprise it was announced ahead of time on July 9, 2013, when Lady in White Bertha Guerrero was threatened by an exasperated state security agent. The regime representative told her that the orders have been given to liquidate the Ladies in White by July 26, 2013. This was tweeted over the internet by former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya.
The Castro regime has been at war with the Ladies in White since they first came into existence in March of 2003. Cuban government agents have slandered the women, carried out beatings, made death threats, pricked members of the Ladies in White with needles, and on October 14, 2011 the founder and leader of the Ladies in White Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died under suspicious circumstances. This is a war being waged against the Ladies in White.
Nevertheless, the Ladies in White who identify themselves as nonviolent human rights defenders have proven resilient to the varied regime attacks precisely because they are nonviolent and have had a long term strategic vision of achieving their end goal: a Cuba were human rights are respected and where there are no more prisoners of conscience.
Unfortunately, the failure of the international media to be able to cover what is happening in Cuba in a timely manner has provided the dictatorship with more room to operate in a brutal and repressive fashion. It has shifted tactics and upped the ante with a policy of increasing violence while at the same time seeking to sow division within the Ladies in White to destroy the movement.
They will fail because the alternative media will take up the slack and these women now through social media can get their message out to the rest of the world. The images of brutalized women can no longer be disappeared as easily as it once was.
However, now is the time for women's groups around the world to demonstrate their solidarity and stand with Cuban women battling to have their own voice and power base on the island.
Raul Castro is reforming the system but only to make it a more efficient and effective totalitarian dictatorship. Independent attorney Lauritza Diversent, based in Havana revealed in a July 1, 2013 report to CubaNet that the reform of the penal code radically expands the power of the police to be judge, jury, and executioner in Cuba:
Currently, police officers can address directly any infringement of the Penal Law, with penalties of up to 1 year’s imprisonment and/or fines no higher than 15 thousand pesos, without being required to report the case to the court. In October, they will be granted authority over offenses of up to 3 years’ imprisonment and/or fines no higher than 50 thousand pesos, with the approval of a prosecutor.According to Lauritza these "reforms" go into effect on October 1, 2013. These are reforms to perfect and preserve a totalitarian apparatus not transition into a more open system. The Ladies in White and Cuba's nonviolent opposition in general needs international attention and solidarity otherwise repression will increase and atrocities will multiply.
This power enables them to judge and punish with fines, which represent 27% of the penalties established in the Penal Code. With the new amendments, these will now represent 52% of the penalties, and police officers will only need approval from a prosecutor to enforce 26%, a good way to contribute “to the consistent enforcement of the Penal Code policies outlined by the State.”
In the amendments the guarantees of due process were not taken into account. The police officers decide whether or not to take the citizen to court and the amount of the fine. In addition, the assistance of a defense lawyer has not been foreseen for any of these cases. Undoubtedly, a subtle way of violating the right to a public hearing in “court.”
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