Solidarity with Free Cubans: Chilean Democrat experiences repression first hand in Cuba

Berta Soler (Left),  Felipe Kast (center), Antonio Rodiles (Right)

This past Sunday in Havana a Chilean member of parliament marched together with the Ladies in White and other free Cubans in a nonviolent demand for the release of all political prisoners. Like the Cubans he accompanied this free Chilean was beaten up and arrested without warning. He was one of the 60 detained in Havana that day. His name is Felipe Kast and he offered the following description of what took place:

"There was no dialogue, the shock group of approximately 100 people simply arrived in vehicles, in buses, and I was knocked to the ground, handcuffed and taken to another place without being able to explain or learning any reason for it."

 Although, Felipe Kast is a conservative and on the right of the political spectrum in Chile that does not determine the posture taken with regards to Cuba. Back in 2002 Joaquín Lavín of the ultra-right wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI in Spanish) met with Fidel Castro for ten hours praising the regime's health care system but did not have time to meet with Cuban dissidents.

Meanwhile the Chilean Christian Democrats who are on the center left and in coalition with the socialists have had a consistent policy in defense of human rights in Cuba both in and out of power supporting dissidents and human rights resolutions taking the dictatorship to task for its dismal record.

This demonstrates that respect for human rights is non-partisan and one must pay attention not only to what is said but more importantly to what is done. This past Sunday, Felipe Kast stood in solidarity with human rights defenders in Cuba and received the same treatment that Cuban democrats suffer at the hands of the Cuban state security services.

Felipe Kast marching with Ladies in White on September 6, 2015 in Cuba