Berta Soler - 'Let them take the equipment, but broken'

Berta Soler: 'Let them take the equipment, but broken'
DDC | La Habana | 28 de Junio de 2016 - 15:13 CEST.

The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and her husband, the
former political prisoner from the "Group of 75," Ángel Moya, were
arrested early Monday morning, for the second time in less than 24
hours. The activists had broken the cameras that had been installed at
the group's headquarters in Lawton, and thrown them onto the street.

The incident began on Sunday, when State Security forces and Police
tried (but failed) to break into the Ladies in White headquarters, under
the pretext of carrying out an inspection. At that time the women,
including Soler, were being held for participating in the
#TodosMarchamos campaign.

State Security sent a young man "to go up on the eaves of the house and
steal the cameras from the window," Soler told the DIARIO DE CUBA. The
equipment in question consisted of the cameras the group of women uses
to record the repressive operations carried out against them every Sunday.

"He managed to break one of the cameras. All to wipe out what´s visible,
so that the world doesn't know what's really going on," she added.

The activist explained that, after being released, and anticipating that
regime forces would try to enter the house again, the Ladies in White
and other activists decided to destroy the equipment on their premises.

"As we were threatened with these acts of vandalism at the national
headquarters, the order was to break all the equipment we had, so that
they wouldn´t take it," Soler said. "Rather than having them take it,
that is, to steal it, we'd rather break it first."

According to the leader of the Ladies in White, the agents told the
dissidents: "go ahead and break them, we'll take them broken."

Soler said that she and Moya arrived at the movement's headquarters at
"about 12 at night," took all "the equipment, already broken," and threw
it onto the street, right in front of the house.

"About fifteen minutes later the police came and, on the orders of some
five State Security agents there, who were watching us, arrested Ángel
Moya and I. We were held for about 20 minutes. During that time we were
in a patrol car, near the Aguilera unit," she said.

"Finally, by order of the State Security Department, apparently, they
took us back to the national headquarters and released us," she added.

The Ladies in White have been victims of "inspections" before, which
have included the confiscation of their goods – including toys and food
that was for parties with neighborhood kids and dissidents' children at
Christmastime. Such incidents have occurred both in Havana and at
provincial headquarters, like that in Holguin.

Source: Berta Soler: 'Let them take the equipment, but broken' | Diario
de Cuba - http://www.diariodecuba.com/derechos-humanos/1467119616_23434.html