HAVANA, March 20 (Reuters) - Some 200 women supporters of Cuban President Fidel Castro laid siege** on Sunday to a march by 30 female relatives of imprisoned dissidents in an attempt to intimidate them.
The women, waving Cuban flags and chanting "Fidel, Fidel" and "down with the worms" intercepted the wives and other relatives as they quietly marched, dressed in white with flowers in hand, down 5th Ave., the main thoroughfare in Havana's Miramar district.
Some 50 men, who appeared to be from the Communist party and security forces,** stood by across the street and later were seen telling the women what to do.**
The dissidents' female relatives have gathered every Sunday for two years at the Santa Rita Church for Mass, then walked a few blocks outside along the avenue without incident, staging brief rallies in a nearby park.
The Palm Sunday march marked exactly two years since the government ended a round up of 75 pro-democracy activists, independent journalists and others. The dissidents were sentenced to average 19-year terms a few weeks later for working with the United States to subvert the government, a charge they deny[but were convicted of in court, with ample proof, including account books and money in bank accounts].
The wives and relatives protests, combined with international pressure, are credited with obtaining the release of 14 of the dissidents for health reasons. [Interesting comment: political prisoners in the US suffering from cancer and other major diseases have never been given such consideration, despite massive protests.]
The female relatives held their own against the jeering throng**, concluding their march and gathering in the park and then on the church steps to sing hymns and recite religious passages as the crowd taunted them.
"We are going to continue here, every Sunday. We are not going to stop marching because they threaten us ... we have the duty to keep seeking the freedom of our husbands," said Gloria Leal, wife of dissident Nestor Aguiar.
The crowd then followed the women two blocks to a bus stop, continuing to chant and sing patriotic songs until all the relatives had left.
On Saturday a mob attacked the home of dissident doctor, Darci Ferrer, after he placed photos and posters of the imprisoned Castro opponents in front of his house. Ferrer was slightly injured and his protest trashed.
"This could be the start of a new wave of political repression by the government using all means at its disposal, including these brigades, which typically are connected to security forces. I know, they attacked me four or five times," said veteran human rights activist, Elizardo Sanchez, head of the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. [If it were "illegal" it would not be tolerated; "unregistered" would be a more correct term.]
On Friday the relatives, known as the "ladies in white"[Now, THAT's an interesting observation, too: "known" by whom? The English-language foreign press? The US Interests Section? In Spanish, what would that be? Let's see: "Las damas en blanco"? "Las señoras"? "Las mujeres"?] , marched on state media offices demanding coverage for their cause and they have twice marched on government buildings and once staged a sit in near Castro's offices, actions unheard of in Cuba without inviting serious government reprisals. [Apparently, as NV has correctly pointed out, the US is really worried about it's inability to get anyone to front for it at the UN Human Rights Commission hearings this year and the likelihood that it will NOT be able to bully or bribe enough countries into voting for even the mildest reproach of Cuba. It's no coincidence that the US gets its internal subversion force activated each year around the time of the HRC hearings, to stir up world (especially European) opinion against Cuba enough to make its strong-arm lobbying more effective. The group's highly-visible call on the media to cover their "silent protests" makes them not so silent, and intentionally provocative. More foreign media consortia willingly oblige. But no comment is made here about the unseen men behind the walls of the US Interests Section instructing these women about what to do. Marc Frank seems particularly lacking in imagine when it comes to that side of the street.....] A report issued by Amnesty International on Friday said some of the imprisoned dissidents were being poorly treated and demanded their release, along with more than 200 other prisoners of conscience.[Not nearly as poorly treated as men and women in US prisons, or those run by and for the US in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, etc. And as to calling them "prisoners of conscience" -- if those trying to overthrow the Cuban revolution had any conscience at all, they wouldn't be prisoners in the first place, but would be defending a social system that uniquely guarantees the right to food, housing, health care, education and quality of life for all the people of their country.]
The report by the world's biggest rights group coincides with the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which will discuss Cuba, one of the last Communist governments.[Not even the most wild-eyed dreamer in Cuba has ever declared that Cuba has reached the stage of "communism", but only that it is "building socialism" -- something Marc Frank knows very well.]
** siege noun: The surrounding and blockading of a city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it.
How does one acquire the ability to discern who "appears to be from the Communist party and security forces"?
throng noun: A large disorderly crowd
How can those men be "seen" telling the women what to do? Unless someone was right there to hear the conversation (in which case, presumably, the reporter would have said "heard telling the women what to do"), any conjecture about what the men and women were talking about is just that -- conjecture. And a biased, macho one at that....]
Articles & Analysis
Human Rights