Public Reaction Against Arbitrary Arrest in Cuba Goes Viral

Public Reaction Against Arbitrary Arrest in Cuba Goes Viral / 14ymedio
Posted on March 28, 2016

14ymedio, Havana, 27 March 2016 – The arrest of a Cuban woman who
demanded respect for human rights has gone viral on social networks.
Allegedly filmed in the Cerro district of Havana, the video, just over a
minute long, shows the moment when the woman is led to a patrol car and
the reaction of the neighbors when the police try to silence her
demands; she also shouts for "respect for the Ladies in White" and the
end of "the Castros' dictatorship."

Three uniformed officers from the People's Revolutionary Police (PNR)
and a woman in a suit from the Ministry of the Interior, lead the
detainee to the police car. At that moment she shouts "Down with the
dictatorship of the Castros!" The two officers try to force her into the
car, a practice that has become frequent in repressive actions.

At that moment we can see how popular anger explodes and several
neighbors come to the defense of the woman. With cries of "abusers," and
"no beatings" and "not this," the citizenry reacts against police
violence and causes confusion among the officers, who remained exposed
to the cries of the people as they are filmed by various electronic devices.

The increase in cameras and cell phones has allowed such documentation,
circulating clandestinely across the country and shared on the social
networks that collect evidence of the arbitrary arrests against
activists and defenders of human rights in Cuba. The video shown here
has already been viewed more than 230,000* times in just few hours.

According to the latest report of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights
and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), the only organization that keeps a
record of arrests and other acts of repression on the island, in the
first two months of the current year there were at least 2,555 arrests
for political reasons.

Translator's note: The posting of the video on Facebook, as of this
morning, has more than 600,000 views.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3hNIScUbWM

Source: Public Reaction Against Arbitrary Arrest in Cuba Goes Viral /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/public-reaction-against-arbitrary-arrest-goes-viral-14ymedio/