CUBA
BRUTAL REPRESSION
OPENS THE YEAR 2012
Political arrests
increased threefold in 2011
The independent news agency Centro de Informacion Hablemos Press in Cuba
documented 3,835 political arrests in its 2011 report on human rights
violations in the island: http://www.cihpress.com/2012/01/informe-mensual-de-violaciones-de-los.html.
The Lady in White, Ivonne Malleza Galano, her husband, Ignacio
Martinez Montejo, and a Cuban woman, Isabel Haydee Alvarez remain
confined in maximum security prisons without formal charges. All three were
violently arrested on November 30, 2011, following a peaceful protest in the
Fraternidad Park in central Havana.
The Lady
in White, Caridad Caballero Batista denounced from her hometown in
Holguin in Eastern Cuba, that the pardons
of more than 2,900 Cuban prisoners announced by Raul Castro are a “farce and a manipulation of the
regime“, “Those who have been
released are highly dangerous inmates, they are people who have murdered, raped;
who are truly delinquent, and who will be used to repress the dissidents.” Caballero Batista received phone calls from
countless prisons in Cuba from political prisoners who wanted to denounce their
cases, many who have already served their unjust sentences. Of those 2,900 who
were supposedly released, there are, at least, five political prisoners,
according to Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, of the Comisión
Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN) in Havana.
Berta
Soler,
leader of the “Ladies in White Laura Pollan” denounced an increase in the
regime’s violent methods of intimidation and harrassment against members of this
peaceful femenine human rights movement throughout the island.
Below
are some of the human rights violations reported from the island since January
1, 2012.
JANUARY 1,
2012
–
In
the city of Santa Clara (central Cuba), The Rosa Parks Movement alongside members of
the Central Opposition Coalition were
victims of the cruel and brutal aggression of the political police, as well as
of members of the Rapid Response Brigade and the Communist Party when they tried
to carry out a peaceful march “for the
freedom of Cuba, against impunity, and in support and solidarity with Ivonne
Malleza Galano.” The activists were taken away and arrested with brutal
force from the home of Idania Yanes Contreras, president of the Central
Opposition Coalition. Frank Reyes Lopez, who was filming the attack, fractured
his right arm after he was thrown off from the roof by State Security
agents.
Maria
del Carmen Martinez also suffered a fracture in one of her arms, while Aramilda
Contreras was victim of serious injuries. Robert Alcides Rivera Yanez, the son
of Yanez Contreras and a minor, was also beaten and shoved by police officials
and suffered injuries and bruises all over his small body. Several
neighbors intervened and managed to shelter the child from the police. The
activists who were subjected to short term detentions and suffered physical as
well as verbal attacks were: Ydania
Llanes Contreras Damaris Moya, Maria del Carmen Martinez Lopez, Ana Iris Burune
Rivera, Yanoisi Contreras Aguilar, Alcides Rivera Rodríguez, Frank Reyes López,
Jorge Luis García Pérez ‘Antúnez’, Natividad Blanco Carrero, Aramilda Contreras
Rodríguez and Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. While in their cells, the guards
screamed obscenities at the women and threatened to rape them. According to
Yanes Contreras, the guards were “raffling” off the women amongst themselves to
see which one they would rape. Damaris Moya denounced that her 13 month old son
was desperately screaming in the arms of his grandmother while agents were
applying martial arts immobilization locks on her. She was dragged into a patrol
car and taken to a detention center. Her husband Yanoisi’s face is swollen because of
the beating and choking. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez was savagely and
repeatedly punched by agents in the patrol car during the ride to the police
station in Santa Clara while the agents forced him to cry out “Viva Fidel”.
Antunez has numerous swellings on his head and is suffering from dizziness and
loss of vision in his left eye.
All
the activists vowed to continue with their public peaceful marches in 2012, a
year they consider important for the Cuban Resistance
Movement.
JANUARY 4,
2012 –
Act
of repudiation in Camaguey against the home of activist Virgilio Mantilla
Arango from 3 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. to prevent a group of activists from meeting
in a public park in the city of Camaguey. Among the activists who were arrested
were: Elizardo Reyes Jimenez, Jorge Luis Suarez Varona, Virgilio
Mantilla Arango, and Alexis Sabatelo of the Unidad Camagueyana por
los Derechos Humanos. They were all taken to the Center of Criminal
Investigation and confined in cells. They were all interrogated and threatened
not to continue with their public independent acts.
JANUARY 5, 2012
–In
Havana, Independent
journalist, Dania Virgen Garcia, Lady in White, Belkis Felicia
Jorrin, and human rights defender Yosvani Martinez Lemus (beaten)
were subjected to short term detentions. The home of Lady in White, Caridad
Burunate, in the city of Colon, (Matanzas province) was victim of an act of
repudiation.
JANUARY 6, 2012 –
According
to independent journalist, Luis Felipe Rojas, the Lady in White, Isabel
Peña was attacked by a government thug in Guantanamo (eastern Cuba). In
Havana, the political police surrounded the home of Lady in White, Anisley
Pavon in the suburb of Marianao. Paramilitary forces of more than 100 agents
attacked the home of Maritza Castro in the Havana district of El Cerro
with stones, sticks, and bottles. Maritza Castro has been carrying out a hunger
strike for almost a month, demanding the freedom of Ivonne Malleza, Ignacio
Martinez, and Isabel H. Alvarez. Maritza is a neighbor of Ivonne Malleza and her
husband Ignacio.
JANUARY 7, 2012 –
Hot
tar was thrown against the front of the home of Lady in White, Gertrudis
Ojeda in Banes (eastern Cuba) because she displayed anti-government signs in
her home. The tar’s pungent odor is affecting one of her sons who is seriously
affected with asthma. According to the independent journalist, Roberto de Jesus
Guerra, Ojeda was beaten and dragged by the paramilitary forces that invaded her
home.
JANUARY 8, 2012 –
The
activist Prudencio Villalon Rades of the Union Patriotica de Cuba
(UMPACU) denounced that Ladies in White, Annis Sarrion, Milagros Leiva,
Maritza Cardosa, Osmeilis Jimenez, as well as her daughter Arianis Gainza
Jimenez (12 years old) were all aggressively attacked by a member of the
Communist Party and paramilitary forces in Municipio Mella, (eastern Cuba).
Also, the Lady in White, Caridad Caballero Batista and her husband,
Esteban Sade were arrested as they were entering the Church Pueblo Nuevo
in Holguin (eastern Cuba). In Cacocun, Holguin, the Lady in White, Berta
Guerrero and her husband, Franklin Pellegrino del Toro were arrested
with violence to prevent their assistance to Mass.
The
independent journalist, Jose Lino Asencio reported that In central Cuba,
the house of Lady in White, Yasmin Conyedo Riveron, located at
calle
Trista 374 entre San Pedro y Virtudes, in the city of Santa Clara, was attacked
by a pro government mob brought in a bus by State Securiy
forces.
In
Pedro Betancourt, a town in the province of Matanzas, the independent activist
Oscar Sanchez Madan was violently
arrested alongside Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya and other human rights defenders,
members of the Independent Movement
Alternative Option, who were on their way to the cemetery to honor the Lady
in White, Gloria Amaya, an activist
and mother of three ex political prisoners of conscience.
The
Coalition
of Cuban-American Women
alerts
the
international community that the lives of those members of Cuban civil society
who are actively and publicly struggling on behalf of fundamental freedoms are
in danger. We are particularly concerned in the cases of Ivonne Mayeza, her husband Ignacio Martinez Montero and Isabel H. Alvarez. International
recognition of the peaceful resistance and solidarity for those human rights
defenders is crucial. We make an urgent call on religious, civic, political, and
cultural entities and its leaders, as well as to non-governmental human rights
organizations worldwide.
FURTHER
INFORMATION IN CUBA: Berta
Soler +5352906820 /
Belkis
Cantillo + 5353790867 / José
Daniel Ferrer - + 53 53631267
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