US Expresses “Deep Concern” Over The Arrest Of Dissidents In Havana

US Expresses "Deep Concern" Over The Arrest Of Dissidents In Havana /
14ymedio
Posted on August 13, 2015

EFE, Washington 10 August 2015 — The US government on Monday expressed
"deep concern" about the detention for some hours of about 90 dissidents
in Cuba, including a group of members of the Ladies in White, and
insisted that it will continue to work to ensure respect for the right
to demonstrate in Cuba.

"We have seen the reports, and our staff at the embassy in Havana
confirmed these arrests," said John Kirby, spokesman for the State
Department, in his daily briefing.

Kirby stressed the "deep concern" of the US government over these arrests.

"We are going to continue to pressure for the rights of peaceful
assembly, associate and freedom of expression, and we are going to
continue expressing our support for an improvement in the conditions of
human rights and democratic reforms," he added.

Those arrests come just days before the US Secretary of State John Kerry
travels to Havana this Friday for the formalization of the raising the
flag over the embassy in Cuba, opened last month, and within the process
of normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries which
remained suspended for more than half a century.

The spokesman referred to the arrests Sunday, several hours after a
demonstration in a Havana park, with some carrying photos of political
prisoners and others wearing masks with images of the US president,
Barack Obama.

The opponents Antonio González-Rodiles, his partner, Ailer Gonzalez and
Angel Santiesteban told EFE that they were arrested and taken into a
police car to a detention center after meeting with the Ladies in White,
after the usual walk that this women's movement undertakes on Sundays
after Mass in a church in the neighborhood of Miramar.

The three said they were detained for a few hours and they knew of other
dissidents in the same situation as in the case of Aliuska Gomez of the
Ladies in White, who was already released.

Gonzalez Rodiles, who leads the independent project Estado de Sats,
explained that they carried the photos to "signal that repression has
intensified against opposition activists" as part of the campaign "We
All March" which they have undertaken to advocate for the release of
political prisoners.

According to the latest report released by the Cuban Commission for
Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), during July there
were at least 674 temporary political arrests on the island, the highest
level since June 2014, and 21 cases of physical attacks during the arrests.

Source: US Expresses "Deep Concern" Over The Arrest Of Dissidents In
Havana / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/us-expresses-deep-concern-over-the-arrest-of-dissidents-in-havana-14ymedio/