Cuba detains dissidents ahead of papal visit
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Cuban authorities detained a prominent dissident and dozens of
her colleagues early Sunday, then rounded up more activists while they
staged a weekly protest march through Havana just days before a visit by
Pope Benedict XVI.
Police took away Bertha Soler and three dozen supporters of the Ladies
in White dissident group hours before they were to take part in a
regular march down Quinta Avenida in the leafy Miramar neighborhood of
Havana.
"They were arrested," said Angel Moya, Soler's husband and a former
political prisoner himself. Soler was also detained briefly Saturday
evening, he said.
About 30 other Ladies supporters did make it to the march, which began
peacefully, but state security agents moved in when the Ladies tried to
extend the protest into streets they don't normally enter. All were
escorted onto a bus belonging to state security. By Sunday evening, many
had been released and some driven back to their homes, though Soler was
apparently still being held.
The Ladies in White formed in 2003, shortly after authorities jailed 75
intellectuals, activists and social commentators in a notorious
crackdown on dissent, sentencing them to long prison terms. All have
since been freed, and many have gone into exile.
Cuba has cleared its jails of most political prisoners, but human rights
groups say the government of President Raul Castro has stepped up
short-term detentions and other forms of harassment against the island's
tiny opposition.
Cuba denies it holds any political prisoners, and says the dissidents
are nothing more than common criminals and mercenaries paid by
Washington to stir up trouble. It scoffs at criticism of its human
rights record by the West, saying its Marxist system provides citizens
with free health care and education, and many other subsidies, while
capitalist countries are plagued by poverty.
The U.S. State Department criticized the detentions of Soler and the
other activists.
"We strongly condemn this assault on peaceful members of Cuba's civil
society," spokeswoman Neda A. Brown said. "The fact that so many members
of the Damas de Blanco were rounded up and detained by the Cuban
government as they were congregating for religious services barely a
week before the visit of Pope Benedict is particularly reprehensible and
in violation of the democratic norm in the Western Hemisphere."
The detentions came just over a week before a March 26-28 visit by
Benedict, who is likely to encourage the government to adopt increased
religious, political and human rights during his tour, at least
privately. It also comes days after Cuban Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime
Ortega asked police to remove a group of 13 opposition members who had
occupied a church in Central Havana for two days.
While the church won assurances that the group members would not be
prosecuted, the church-sanctioned raid and its hardline stance
throughout the standoff was derided by many dissidents, even those who
had opposed the initial occupation.
While many praise Ortega for mediating the release of political
prisoners in 2010 and occasionally speaking out in favor of greater
economic and political freedom on this Communist-run island, others say
he has not done enough.
They say Thursday's decision to call in police to remove dissidents from
the Church of Charity demonstrates Ortega's lack of sympathy. Sunday's
events will likely provide more fodder for those critics.
Elizardo Sanchez, who monitors human rights on the island and acts as a
de facto spokesman for the opposition, expressed astonishment at the
posture of Ortega, whom he has often praised in the past.
"I can't get over my astonishment over what has happened in these last
few days," Sanchez told The Associated Press. "The cardinal is acting
like the first two of the three wise monkeys," who could neither see
evil nor hear it.
Even as members of the Ladies in White were being detained, Ortega was
performing Mass at the grand Cathedral in Old Havana. His sermon inside
the baroque, stone edifice before several hundred worshippers did not
mention the week's drama, nor did he say anything about human rights in
general. Instead, he kept his comments focused on religion and the
pontiff's imminent arrival.
"With a sense of gratitude, enjoyment and profound spiritual peace, and
with the gifts that God has given us we prepare to receive the Pope,"
said the 75-year-old Ortega. "Let God grant us a truly warm reception
for the Holy Father, and let his visit bear abundant fruit."
---
Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia and Andrea Rodriguez
contributed to this report.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/18/2700737/cuba-detains-dissidents-ahead.html
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