(EFE).- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) asked Cuba this Friday to approve a visit to the country to review the situation of the Ladies in White group, to which the agency granted precautionary measures almost ten years ago.
The Cuban government, alleges the IACHR in a resolution, has not given the agency a response that “allows to indicate that it is adopting measures to protect the rights” of the members of the group. This is the first time that the IACHR has asked Cuba for an in-person visit within the framework of precautionary measures.
The Damas de Blanco collective, made up of relatives of dissidents imprisoned by the government, has been the target of harassment, death threats, home searches and arrests by state agents since the protection mechanism was granted in 2013, according to the report. document.
The IACHR explains that it has requested information from the Cuban State on the situation of the group at least four times in the last ten years and has not received a response, for which it asks to “assess the situation of the beneficiaries” with a visit in person.
The Damas de Blanco collective has been subject to harassment, death threats, home searches and arrests
The request of the commission is disclosed almost two weeks after the leader of the group, the opposition Berta Soler, was arrested -and later released hours later- by State Security agents during the fourteenth arrest on Sundays carried out by the female group so far this year.
The Ladies in White, who founded the collective in 2003, decided to march again on Sundays, after the pause imposed by the pandemic, to demand the release of those detained in the massive protests that the island experienced in June of last year.
An “in situ” visit by the IACHR must be approved by the Cuban government, which has not allowed the agency to enter the country until now. The last time the commission was in a country was in January 2020, in Chile, as a result of the social outbreak in the nation. That same year, the IACHR tried to visit Venezuela, an ally of Cuba, but the government of President Nicolás Maduro prohibited the commission from entering the country.
Cuba is not part of the Organization of American States, after being expelled from the organization in 1962.
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