Cuban dissidents detained; Yoani Sánchez released

Posted on Thursday, 11.08.12

Cuban dissidents detained; Yoani Sánchez released

A group of political dissidents were detained near a Havana police
station. Among them: blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was later released.
By Juan Carlos Chavez
jchavez@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban authorities ordered the temporary detention of several dissidents
who had gathered in front of a Havana police station Thursday to demand
freedom for a group of activists and independent lawyers.

Among those detained were blogger Yoani Sánchez, former political
prisoner Guillermo Fariñas, and writers Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Angel
Santiesteban and Eugenio Leal. Several former political prisoners from
the Group of 75 also were detained. They included Angel Moya, Félix
Navarro, Julio Aleaga, Eduardo Díaz Fleitas and Librado Linares.

Yoani Sánchez was freed late Thursday, according to a Twitter message
from her husband, Reynaldo Escobar.

The activists were detained outside a police station at Acosta and 10 de
Octubre in a Havana neighborhood called La Víbora where they were
demanding the immediate, unconditional release of more than a dozen
activists who had been detained at midweek.

A pro-government group that blogs under the name Yohandry said on
Twitter that Sánchez was detained for creating a "public disturbance"
and for "social indiscipline."

"A wave of repressive has been noted in the capital. It has a spiral or
domino-effect,'' Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, a spokesman for the Cuban
Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation told El Nuevo Herald.

The arrests coincided with reports of a critical situation for human
rights and zero tolerance on the part of the Castro government for
requests for freedom and democracy.

Sánchez Santa Cruz added that the arrest of dissidents and police
threats mark a new chapter of indiscriminate repression.

On Wednesday, police arrested independent lawyers Yaremis Flores,
Laritza Diversent and Veisant Boloy.

The commission also confirmed the arrest of the director of State of
Sats Project, Antonio Rodiles, and activists Andres Perez and Mario
Morales. The project is a movement based in Havana, which promotes the
exchange of ideas. On several occasions, the group has made written
demands for an end to the Cuban government's censorship practices. In
this context, it organizes monthly meetings, panel discussions and
analyses on art and social activism.

The organization has repeatedly asked the government not to prohibit
entry into the island of various intellectuals and artists now barred by
the government because they do not fit in with the island's political
expectations.

Wilfredo Vallín, a Havana lawyer who heads the Cuban Law Association,
described the arrests as a new expression of intolerance and
authoritarianism in Cuba.

"We do not know what the condition of these people arrested and have no
information of their whereabouts. These arrests were made without any
legal basis,'' Vallín said. "We've heard that some of them were beaten.
Obviously, this cannot be allowed to continue."

Others detained were Vladimir Torres, Rolando Reyes, Reinaldo Figueras
and Luis Manuel Fumero. All were taken to police stations run by the
Cuban State Security.

"At this time, most of those arrested are unaccounted for, but we know
they have been placed in prison cells at different stations of the
national revolutionary police and being held incommunicado," Sánchez
Santa Cruz said.

The wave of oppression against the ranks of dissidents continue to
aggravate the already critical situation inside the island. In October,
the Cuban rights commission identified 520 arrests of dissidents for
political reasons. The report described a high level of consistent
repression, harassment and persecution.

In early October, Yoani Sanchez was briefly detained in a research
center in the eastern city of Bayamo along with her husband, an
independent journalist, and blogger Agustín Lopez.

At the time, the trio was traveling to attend the trial of Angel
Carromero, a Spanish citizen charged in the July death in a car crash of
famed dissident, Oswaldo Payá. A second dissident, Harold Cepero, also
died in the accident.

Minutes before her arrest on Thursday, Sánchez sent a Twitter message
about the repression the activist were encountering.

"They released Ailer Gonzalez but the rest are still behind bars, the
group being held at the Acosta police station is still here," Sánchez
tweeted.

Rodiles, who also is in police custody, had been arrested in July in
Havana and released hours later. At that time, no charges were levied
against him, but authorities did not explain the reason for his arrest.
Rodiles' release came after several of his friends and independent
journalists staged a "sit-in" at the station where he was being held
incommunicado.

In Miami, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Thursday condemned the crackdown
against opposition ranks in an email to El Nuevo Herald.

"Just one day after Obama's reelection, the brutal Castro regime
continues to do what it does best: arresting and beating peaceful
pro-democracy activists," said Ros-Lehtinen. "I have hope that this
administration [Obama] will see these despots and tyrants for what they
are."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/08/3088460/yoani-sanchez-and-other-cuban.html