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| Ladies in White Tania Echevarría, Saylí Navarro, Sissi Abascal & Aymara Nieto jailed. |
May 22, 2023 marks the day twenty years ago when a group of brave Cuban women took the name the Ladies in White.
They first came together on March 30, 2003 in the aftermath of a major crackdown that began on March 18, 2003, and with political show trials underway targeting their loved ones.
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| Claudia Márquez (L) , Blanca Reyes (center) y Miriam Leiva (Rt), on 4/7/03 (Martí Noticias) |
These courageous women carried out marches demanding the freedom of all prisoners of conscience and recognition of international human rights standards.
Their objective was to see an end to prisoners of conscience in Cuba.
Recognizing their struggle, the European Parliament awarded the Ladies in White the Sakharov Prize in 2005.
They've paid a high price for this stand. Movement leader Laura Pollán may have paid the highest price.
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| Laura Pollán, February 13, 1948 - October 14, 2011 |
Mary O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal on October 24, 2011 reported that Pollán instead of disbanding sought to expand "the movement across the country and promised to convert it to a human rights organization open to all women. Speaking from the Guanajay prison as her condition was deteriorating, jailed former Cuban counterintelligence officer Ernesto Borges Pérez told the Hablemos Press that making public those objectives likely sealed her fate." Laura Pollán died on October 14, 2011 and was cremated shortly afterwards.
Twenty years later, and the Ladies in White continue to be subjected to brutal repression, and four women of this movement are now jailed in Cuba for calling for the release of political prisoners, and nonviolently defending human rights.
- On April 14, 2022, Ms.Tania Echevarría Menéndez was sentenced to six years in prison for crimes of public disorder and contempt.
- On April 18, 2022, Ms. Sayli Navarro Alvarez began serving an eight-year sentence for crimes of public disorder, contempt, and assault related to her participation in the July 11 protests.
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Ms. Sissi Abascal Zamora was sentenced to six years in prison
for participating in the 11J protests in the town of Carlos Rojas, in
the municipality of Jovellanos, in the province of Matanzas.
The 23-year-old activist and member of the Party for Democracy Pedro Luis Boitel has ten business days to appeal. Reports
are that a bus full of women dressed as civilians arrived where Sissi
was peacefully demonstrating with others on July 11, 2021, and proceeded
to beat her and others up, and a bottle was broken over Ms. Abascal
Zamora's head requiring that she receive stitches.
- Mrs. Aymara Nieto Muñoz served four years in prison for her activism in the Ladies in White and when released officials created a new case against her and sentenced her to five years and four months in prison. This was in retaliation for not having agreed with State Security to leave the country with her family.
The current elected leader of the Ladies in White in Cuba is Berta Soler Fernandez.
Artists have celebrated them over the years, and their work endures. Mike Porcel in 2005 composed the song "Damas de Blanco" for a documentary about the Ladies in White.
In 2011, following Laura Pollán's death, Amaury Gutierrez composed the song "Laura", and in 2013 played it for Berta Soler and other Ladies in White at Our Lady of Charity when she visited Miami.
Today, 20 years later, we remember their courageous example, and the need to follow their lead both inside and outside of Cuba.
Freedom for Tania,
Sayli, Sissi, Aymara, and the over 1,000 other prisoners of conscience
in Cuba.
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