October 3, 2011
Combined forces of State Security and police agents (men and women) prevented eleven members of the Ladies in White and their female supporters from going to mass and carrying out a march this Sunday, October 1, 2011, in the Eastern city of Palma Soriano. Among them were: Belkis Cantillo Ramirez, Tania Montoya Vazquez, Aimee Garces Leyva, Ana Celia Rodriguez Torres, Milagros Leyva Ramirez, and Liudmila Rodriguez Palomo.
When the agents tried to arrest them, the women dropped to the ground chanting the word FREEDOM, but, as their arms were twisted, they were all dragged up to a bus and pushed inside the vehicle. Nine women were dropped off at different points along the Palma Milla highway except Montoya Vazquez and Garces Leyva who were taken to a special unit of Cuban State Security in Santiago de Cuba (unidad de enfrentamiento a la subversión) and later released.
The activists who were following the Ladies in White, taking pictures to document the march, Raumel Vinajera and his brother, as well as Guillermo Cova Reyes and Ruisan Ramirez were thrown on the ground,were brutally beaten and arrested. To date, only Guillermo Cova has been released.
From Santa Clara, the ex political prisoner, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez” reported that the police released today, October 2, 2011, three female activists whose whereabouts were unknown since Monday, September 26, 2011. Antunez’s wife, Yris Perez Aguilera, as well as Yaimara Reyes Mesa, and Donaida Perez Paseiro were emaciated from the hunger strikes they carried out in prison to protest their arrest and were also full of marks from the blows they were subjected to. All three were violently detained in Havana on September 26, 2011, when they demanded the unjust imprisonment of Sara Martha Fonseca and other human rights defenders.
At present the following activists who remain in prison and threatened with prosecution: Arrested August 28, 2011, when paramilitary forces attacked with tear gas the house of activist Marino Antomarchit in Palma Soriano. Accused of “disorderly conduct” in the Aguadores Prison in Santiago de Cuba held in inhumane conditions are: Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya, Bismarck Mustelier Galan, Jose Enrique Martinez Ferrer, Nivaldo Amelo Ramirez, Alexis Aguirrezabal Rodriguez, Alexis Yachoi Kuan Jerez, and Victor Campa Almenares.
Arrested September 24, 2011, when they were carrying out a peaceful march in the Havana neighborhood of Rio Verde and accused of “assault”: Members of the Human Rights Party affiliated to the Andrei Sajarov Foundation and the National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front, Orlando Zapata Tamayo: Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo (held in the Fourth Police Unit in El Cerro, Havana) and her husband, Julio Leon Perez, ( held in the Prison Ward of the Carlos J. Finlay Hospital, Havana due to low glucose blood levels). Sara Marta is on a hunger strike and can hardly walk due to the injuries to her back caused by the beatings during her arrest. Her husband is on a liquid fast.
Arrested on Thursday, September 8, 2011, following a verbal dispute with a woman, head of a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in their neighborhood in Eastern Cuba. Accused of “disorderly conduct” and “assault”. Yelena Garces Napoles (held in the Women's Prison of Mar Verde in Santiago de Cuba) who is President of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR), and the activists, Reinaldo Rodriguez Martinez, Jose Batista Falcon and Hector Felix Labrada Muñoz.
The Coalition of Cuban-American Women urgently alerts the international community of the escalating violence committed by the Cuban state against citizens who peacefully demand fundamental freedoms in the island.
FURTHER INFORMATION IN CUBA: Tania Montoya +53 53146329 / José Daniel Ferrer - + 53 53631267 or Belkis Cantillo - + 53 53790867
Coalition of Cuban-American Women / Laida A, Carro / Joseito76@aol.com
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