As Repressive As Always

December 12, 2010
From AFP:

Dissidents' wives protest outside Cuban prison

Female relatives of jailed political dissidents held an unprecedented protest outside Cuban prisons, angry that the island's communist government has not met its pledge to release 11 political prisoners.

Meanwhile, some 50 political dissidents were briefly arrested late Thursday and early Friday in different parts of the country to prevent protests on International Human Rights Day, said rights leader Elizardo Sanchez.

"These are preventive detentions, lasting just a few hours, but still unacceptable," Sanchez said.

The women, belonging to the Ladies in White group, marched carrying flowers and chanting "Freedom for the prisoners! and "Zapata lives!" -- a reference to Orlando Zapata, a dissident who died in February after an 85 day-long hunger strike.

The women marched unopposed outside two prisons and the national Directorate of Prisons.

While the women were not harassed by government supporters at the prison, late Thursday members of the group were surrounded and heckled by a crowd in downtown Havana.

Under a deal brokered by the Catholic Church, President Raul Castro agreed in July to release 52 of the political prisoners.

Of those, 40 agreed to emigrate to Spain with their families and one stayed in Cuba, but the remaining 11 are still in jail and refuse to be exiled.

The agreed-upon deadline for their release expired on November 7.

"Some prisoners were released but in essence, nothing has changed," said Ladies in White leader Laura Pollan, whose husband Hector Maseda is one of the jailed dissidents.

"The regime remains as totalitarian and repressive as always," she said.