Less than 48 hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shunned Cuban dissidents from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, over 200 dissidents have been arrested.
In Havana, 60 members of The Ladies in White, the renowned pro-democracy group composed of the wives, mothers and daughters of Cuban political prisoners, were arrested — along with nearly 20 other activists.
Among those arrested were Berta Soler, leader of The Ladies in White; Antonio Rodiles, of Estado de Sats; and Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez” of the National Resistance Front.
Some of The Ladies in White, such as Yaqueline Boni, were brutally beaten in custody. Others severely beaten include Ciro Alexis Casanova, Jose Diaz Silva and Mario Alberto Hernandez.
Meanwhile, in eastern Cuba, over 140 dissidents from the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU) were arrested, as they sought to demonstrate in favor of political prisoners Zaqueo Baez, Jordys Dosil and Reinier Rodriguez Mendoza.
Baez and Dosil have been on a hunger strike for the last eight days protesting their unjust imprisonment. Rodriguez, who suffers from asthma and epilepsy, is being denied treatment and weighs 81 pounds.
All three were imprisoned after the Obama-Castro deal.
This is “what change looks like” in Cuba.
