Havana/Police suspended at night the operation that maintained Saturday around the headquarters of the Blanco ladies in Lawton (Havana). In statements a 14ymediothrough a borrowed mobile, the opponent Ángel Moya explained shortly before the agents raised the fence: “They are in both corners with tremendous impunity because we cannot directly publish anything of this that they are doing to us because we do not have phones.”
“We have told several neighbors that on Avenida Porvenir there is a great operation as well,” says the former black spring prisoner who, together with his wife, activist Berta Soler, was arrested last Thursday and her mobile phones confiscated by state security. He adds that his legal situation, at this time, is that both are “under a precautionary measure of house arrest for the alleged crime of attacking the established constitutional order.”
Both Soler, leader of the Blanco ladies, as Moya are in house arrest for 48 days and cannot leave their home for, among other accusations, “attempt against the independence and sovereignty of the country” due to their recent encounter with the head of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer.
Hammer accompanied Soler On April 13, Domingo de Ramos, to the church of Santa Rita, in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The dissident was escorted by the diplomat to the parish after several Sundays in which a strong police operation prevented him from leaving his home. Subsequently, last Thursday, both opponents were arrested around 2:00 in the afternoon in the area of the Virgen del Camino, in Havana, according to the Cubalex organization.
Moya clarifies that, although they have not yet raised formal charges, they are “under a research process”
Moya clarifies that, although they have not yet raised formal charges, they are “under a research process.” During The arrestSoler and Moya’s mobile phones were retained by state security, an seizure that worries both. “They are the cell phones that we use to connect to social networks and they were turned off when we gave them to them, they asked us for passwords and did not give them.” Political police officers warned them that despite that “they were going to open technically” devices.
The opponent calls on alert: “If in our social networks, as well as in our private channels, confusing and biased messages appear then it is the security of the state that is writing them.”
Activists have tried to publicize their situation by several channels despite the house arrest. This Sunday, Moya and Soler managed to appear on social networks and said they will go out after 12:00 of the day. “The house is not dungeon,” said Soler. Moya explained that after the arrest they had been taken to different police units – so to the Cotorro station and he to Guanabacoa – where they were for more than 24 hours and that, after returning to their home, they cut the Internet access.
The United States Embassy in Havana shared on Saturday a publication of the Western Hemisphere Affairs Office expressing its “outrage” for repression against dissidents. “This demonstrates even more the ruthless contempt of the regime for religious freedom and once again exposes the brutal mistreatment that the regime inflicts to its own people when trying, he admits himself, intimidate US diplomats,” the office denounced.
He also added that the embassy “will continue to meet with Cubans from all areas, in particular with those that defend human rights, fundamental freedoms and human dignity.”
The previous arrest of both dissidents occurred on Sunday, April 6, when they tried to attend Mass
The previous arrest of both dissidents occurred on Sunday, April 6, when they tried to attend Mass. In recent years, Berta Soler has denounced multiple temporary arrests of it and members of the organization that leads, mostly on Sundays, when they are preparing to go to the Church and the police prevents them.
The Blanco Ladies movement arose at the initiative of a group of family women of the 75 dissidents and independent journalists arrested in March 2003 and sentenced to high prison convictions during the so -called black spring. From then on, the wives, mothers and other relatives of those prisoners identified themselves for always dressed in white and, after attending Mass in a Catholic temple, they began to make Sunday marches to ask for their release.
In 2005, Blanco ladies received the Sájarov Prize for the freedom of conscience of the European Parliament.
This start of the year has been active for the repressive devices of the regime. Along with the release of 230 political prisoners through the mediation of the Vatican, the Government of the Island has intensified its persecution to activists and relatives of detainees.
Last Wednesday, the writer and collaborator of 14ymedioJorge Fernández Era, who tried to demonstrate in Havana in solidarity with the protests that Professor Alina Barbara López performs every day 18 of the month. Another colleague of the academic, Jenny Pantoja, who also wanted to support the claims, was forced to remain in her home for state security.
Others Two collaborators of 14ymedio They are currently imprisoned: Yadiel Hernández Hernández, known as Kakashiin Matanzas, since the end of January, when he investigated drug trafficking and consumption in a city school. The other is José Gabriel Barrenechea, who has been in prison for five months, waiting for trial, for participating in the protests against the blackouts, on November 8 at the crossroads, Villa Clara.
