Berta Soler, the head of Cuba’s pro-democracy Ladies in White group, denounced the communist regime there on Tuesday for refusing to renew her passport, telling her that she was being “regulated” generally and could not move freely.
A monthly report tracking politically motivated arrests in Cuba published this week revealed that over half the victims of these arrests, most members of pro-democracy dissident groups, were women, an indication the communist regime is systematically targeting women for repression.
Cuban dissidents published a video Sunday showing the head of Cuba’s pro-democracy Ladies in White group, Berta Soler, being assaulted and dragged away by state security for holding up a sign reading “Revolution is Repression.”
The U.S. embassy in Cuba, operating only on essential staff since the State Department confirmed more than two dozen diplomats and their families suffered health attacks of unknown origin there, hosted some of the country’s most prominent anti-communist dissidents for a Fourth of July celebration Thursday.
The communist government of Cuba has announced its candidates for the municipal “elections” scheduled for November 26, a vote which will feature zero opposition candidates on the ballot.
Over thirty members of the Ladies in White, a peaceful Catholic dissident group in Cuba, were violently arrested over the weekend for attempting to attend Sunday Mass, including leader Berta Soler.
The government of Cuba has banned one of the country’s most high-profile anti-communist dissidents, Ladies in White coordinator Berta Soler, from traveling to Florida to attend President Donald Trump’s national address on America’s policy toward the island prison.
On Saturday, a coalition of actresses, pop stars, and Michael Moore congregated in cities throughout the country to protest the peaceful transfer of power between Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, a centuries-old American tradition.
The government of Cuba began 2017 with the mass arrest of dissident leaders, including Ladies in White head Berta Soler, to prevent groups from attending New Year’s Day Catholic Mass.
Berta Soler, the leader of the Cuban anti-communist group Ladies in White, reported the violent arrests of about 40 dissidents earlier this week who attempted to gather in a public park. The women were beaten, some severely, for trying to meet.
Berta Soler, the leader of the anti-communist Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White, was arrested on Thursday after stepping outside her home, which is also the group’s headquarters.
After canceling their silent protest for two weeks to avoid antagonizing the communist government following the death of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s Ladies in White dissident group took the streets on Sunday, the weekend of International Human Rights Day.
Following his arrest Friday night, Cuban anti-communist graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado has received severe beating in prison, where he is being detained on no charges. Maldonado took to the streets of Havana Friday to celebrate the death of dictator Fidel Castro, spray-painting the phrase “he’s gone” on the outside of a building.
Following the announcement that Fidel Castro, the 90-year-old former dictator of Cuba, had died, many are asking whether his demise will aid the Cuban dissident movement or whether his brother will continue to rule with an iron fist.
Fidel Castro, the dictator who used firing squads, labor camps, beatings, torture, and hunger to oppress his people for more than half a century, died Friday night at the age of 90. His demise – though his brother, Raúl, remains in power – has led many to ask what the future holds for Cuba’s anti-communist dissident community.
World-renowned Cuban dissident activist Guillermo Fariñas began his 46th day on his 24th hunger strike Monday, a strike he has said he will end only when dictator Raúl Castro agrees to an end to the use of state violence against political dissidents.
The White House has released a list of Cuban political dissidents attending a closed meeting with President Barack Obama Tuesday morning, many who have been arrested multiple times shortly before and during the Obamas’ visit, and many who have had harsh words for his “normalization” plan for Cuba.
The Cuban dissident community has reacted with alarm and dismay at the news that President Obama will visit the island in March, calling the move “an error” that will likely bring pro-democracy activists “a lot of collateral damage.”
Cuban anti-communist dissidents have denounced communist agents – many, they say, Cuban soldiers disguised as civilians – for attacking the headquarters of the Ladies in White group, setting a fire in front of the building, and burning copies of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
24 members of the Cuban Ladies in White dissident group have finally been freed after their arrest to prevent them from attending Pope Francis’s mass in Havana on Sunday. The women claim to have been beaten, “dragged by the hair,” and subject to verbal obscenities.
Two of Cuba’s most prominent anti-communist leaders refused to meet with American Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Havana last weekend, condemning the Obama administration for “caving” to Castro regime demands and meeting only privately for a social event with the dissidents.
A total of over 100 Cuban dissidents were arrested this weekend, with more than 90 being hauled away on a bus by Cuban authorities on Sunday as they marched through Havana wearing masks of President Barack Obama, demanding the White House pressure Cuba to respect human rights and political freedom.
