July 19, 2005
Women In White harassed (Updated)
castro's thugs are at it again, harassing the Women In White, while castro's "cops" stare stupidly, pretending they aren't part of the castro brutality plan. That's not all. Five of the 20 Tugboat protestors from last week remain in castro's dungeons. Those would be the same protestors that Vanessa Bauza, incompetent journalist extraordinaire, assured us were peaceful orderly demonstrations. Oh really? Vanessa you liar. Where are the human rights groups? This is despicable.
Cuban women dissidents complain of harassment
Havana, Jul 19 (EFE).- Cuba's dissident "Women in White," mostly wives and mothers of political prisoners, say they are being increasingly harassed by pro-government mobs, with police standing by while they are insulted and shoved.
Berta Soler, wife of jailed democracy advocate Angel Moya, told EFE of an incident Sunday, when she and six other members of the group, known for their white clothing, went to visit Isabel Ramos outside the capital.
Ramos, mother of Arturo Suarez, who was sent to jail 19 years ago for his attempted hijacking of an airplane to escape the island, is on a hunger strike to press for improvement of what she says are inhumane conditions of her son's imprisonment. As the women left Ramos' home, they were surrounded by a throng of several dozen supporters of Fidel Castro who shouted insults at the dissident women and chanted pro-government slogans.
"The police stood by a block away, just watching," said Soler, whose husband was sentenced to 20 years in the Spring 2003 crackdown on peaceful dissent that saw 75 people jailed.
Fourteen of those prisoners have since been released, ostensibly on medical grounds.
"If anything happens to any of us, it will be the responsibility of the government," said Soler.
Meanwhile, the head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights, which is considered illegal by the 46-year-old Communist regime, said five of about 20 dissidents arrested last week during a small rally in Havana remain jailed.
That group, which on July 13 was marking the anniversary of the 1994 ramming of a tugboat on which dozens of Cubans were trying to flee the island, was also surrounded, shoved and insulted by a pro-government mob.
In the incident 11 years ago, 37 people drowned after the rammed vessel sank. Elizardo Sanchez, head of the rights panel, said the government has stepped up police presence on Havana streets lately. He said tightened security and the anti-dissident street actions stem from "nervousness about symptoms of social discontent," which he contended were on the rise, partly due to electricity shortages prompting frequent long blackouts. EFE rmo/dgm
Update: Our good friend Stefania in beautiful Sardinia has a photo of the Women in White who are being brutalized by castro's despicable machine. Her blog is full of good work. See it here.
Posted by Mora at July 19, 2005 07:19 AM
Comments
Are we surprised?
Before the paralizing fear affecting a great number of people we have also a great number of thugs, who are ready to please "massa cagastro".
But as the all saying goes, it has to get worse to get better. One day, when one guy cannot take the abuse anymore and beats one of the "cagastroguarddogs" the guy next to him is going to beat the other sbirro, and then it will create a chain reaction.
Very telling how they abuse women. Unarmed women.
Very telling... They are becoming the cagastroliban, or the tropical version of the taliban.
Posted by: CB at July 19, 2005 01:15 PM
Very well said, CB. Wasn't it Bush who said a civilization can be measured by how it treats is women? In cagastro's case, that measurement would approximately equal barbudo's ... uhhh ... inadequacies.
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at July 19, 2005 08:40 PM