Ladies in White harassment and demolition
11 Ladies in White in prison
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The cuban dictatorship has unleashed a meticulous and brutal campaign against the Ladies in White that has imprisoned four members of that organization between the months of March and July and has imprisoned eleven women in the last three years.
The government condemned this week, to a year in prison with internment to the Lady in White Yolanda Santana, accused of non-payment of fines, a mechanism used by the Department of State Security to arrest women. Mrs. Santana had a trial without lawyers in a courtroom taken by the political police.
Also imprisoned in a Havana jail accused of contempt and disobedience awaiting trial is Mrs. Marta Sánchez Gonzales, as well as i Nieves Caridad Matamoros González, who was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for the same offense of unpaid fines. She is being held in the provincial prison of El Guatao. Aymara Nieto Muñoz, arrested with a beating that required medical help, is in the same jail waiting for a trial.
There are also three ladies threatened by the State Security Department to be imprison Yamile Bargés, Gladys Capote and Micaela Roll
The repressors purpose with this campaign of harassment is the disappearence of the Ladies in White Movement.
The new president of the Cuban government does not seem to intend to direct his government towards respect for human rights and freedoms in Cuba, quite the contrary. The direct aggression against Damas de Blanco with total impunity proves it.
In spite of all this, the Ladies in White will continue to promote the Human Rights Declaration, demanding the release of political prisoners and peacefully defending the inalienable rights of all Cubans.
Berta Soler Fernández
Ladies in White
Havana, July 2018
