Nearly 300 Cuban Dissidents Arrested Over the Weekend Capitol Hill Cubans January 11, 2016
Ladies in White Havana - January 10, 2016 photo Serafin Moran Santiago
This past weekend, over 300 Cuban dissidents were arrested for peacefully demanding the release of all political prisoners and their fundamental rights.
Among those arrested were 50 members of the renowned pro-democracy group, The Ladies in White, in Havana. Various of them, including Yamile Garro and Aliuska Gomez, were cornered and violently beaten beforehand.
In the eastern provinces, over 200 members of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) were arrested. In Santiago de Cuba alone, there were 137 arrests.
A major raid by Castro's secret police sought to stop a gathering for the third anniversary of the pro-democracy initiative, Proyecto Emilia. Among those arrested was its founder, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, along with 24 other activists.
Finally, there's great concern about the well-being of Cuban political prisoner, Jorge Ramirez Calderon, one of the 53 prisoners re-arrested after Castro reneged on his agreements with Obama. He's on the 23rd day of a hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment and has been transferred from a punishment cell in Manacas prison to an undisclosed location.
More "change" you can't believe in.
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