Opposition Group Slams Cuba’s 963 Political Arrests in June

Opposition Group Slams Cuba's 963 Political Arrests in June

HAVANA – The dissident Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation (CCDHRN) said on Tuesday that at least 963 arrests were
made for political reasons last month on the Communist-ruled island.

In its monthly report, the commission noted the cases of independent
journalists Guillermo Fariñas and Roberto de Jesus Guerra, and of former
political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

The commission said that Fariñas, a resident of the central city of
Santa Clara, was detained almost every Monday in June, as he was during
the previous month, "to prevent his organization from holding the
meetings it had planned," and said that he was "submitted on almost
every one of those occasions to the torture of being confined in
extremely cold temperatures."

The group also said there have been "physical aggression and other forms
of intimidation" against members of the Ladies in White movement, and
that the members of the Cuban Network of Community Communicators,
directed by ex-political prisoner Maria Beatriz Roque, have been the
target of "systematic detentions and other forms of harassment."

Judging by that record, the opposition commission considers that
"political repression of peaceful dissidents and of the political
opposition continued, beyond any small variations of purely statistical
importance."

Another communique from the group, released in late June, said that the
number of political prisoners in Cuba has now risen to 114.

The Cuban government considers dissidents to be "counterrevolutionaries"
and "mercenaries" at the service of the United States.

Source: "Latin American Herald Tribune - Opposition Group Slams Cuba's
963 Political Arrests in June" -
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