HAVANA, Cuba. – The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler Fernández, is missing after being detained by plainclothes officers on Sunday, September 22.
The former political prisoner Angel Moyathe opposition’s husband, confirmed to CubaNet that Soler was “arrested by paramilitary forces upon leaving the National Headquarters of the Ladies in White.”
“They took her to an unknown location. I hereby want to hold the communist regime of Cuba and the State Security for the physical integrity of Berta Soler,” said Moya.
The previous Sunday (September 15), the representative of the female opposition group was warned by the State Security agent known as “Felo” that if she went out into the streets again to demand the release of political prisoners, she would suffer “detention without return.”
On September 15, Soler Fernández was held in a semi-dark cell at the police station in the Cotorro municipality. On that occasion, State Security agents informed her that, if she did not protest in the streets again, both she and her husband could leave Cuba to see their children and grandchildren in the United States and return to the Island.
In this regard, and before the arrest last Sunday, the dissident assured CubaNet that she does not enter into “arrangements” and deals with “the executioner” who for years has been “pressuring, harassing, threatening and putting her in jail, the same one who has thousands of people imprisoned for political reasons.”
State Security could send Soler Fernández directly to prison for the crime of non-payment of fines.
Five Ladies in White are currently in prison for their peaceful work as human rights activists and for protesting against the Cuban regime: Sissi Abascal Zamora, Sayli Navarro Álvarez, Jacqueline Heredia Morales, Tania Echevarría Menéndez and Aymara Nieto Muñoz.
