Exile Group Denounces Latest Repression in Cuba

MIAMI – The influential Cuban American National Foundation said Monday that the Cuban government “brutally” repressed for the second straight week a procession by the human rights group Ladies in Support.

More than 30 people were arrested during an operation by the political police Sunday in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the Miami-based CANF said, citing information from dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

The arrests were made to shut down the weekly procession by Ladies in Support activists in Cuba’s second city, CANF said in a communique.

Several of the activists “were practically besieged in their homes,” as pro-regime “rapid response brigades” threw stones and eggs at some of the dwellings in the area and dealt some “brutal beatings.”

“What was most significant was the fact that despite the brutal beatings, these women and men remained firm in their purpose,” Ferrer told the CANF.

In spite of the “repressive” deployment, Ladies in Support members Milagros Leiva and Annis Sarrion managed to attend Mass, as did activists Juan Carlos Vazquez, Alexis Kuang, Prudencio Villalon and Jose Batista.

Ladies in Support members Yuremis Gonzalez and Leudis Fajardo also managed to “evade the repression,” CANF said. EFE