Jessica Zuckerman and Ray Wassler at The Foundry:
“Ladies in White” and Obama’s Failed Policy of Cuban Appeasement
They call themselves “las Damas de Blanco” (“the Ladies in White”). They are a prominent group of courageous Cuban women, many of them wives of political prisoners. They have fought not just for the rights of the unjustly imprisoned but for the rights of all the Cuban people to have a voice in the way their country is governed.
Their tactics are entirely peaceful: They take to the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba each Sunday and silently march in protest against human rights violations of the Castro regime and the harassment and jailing of Cuban activists and dissidents. Dressed in white and holding red gladiolas flowers, the Ladies in White are enduring symbols of the acute toll of Cuban political oppression.
In July 2010, following the sacrifices of prisoners of conscience, such as hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo (d. February 23, 2010), the Ladies in White achieved their first major victory. In a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government, 52 activists jailed since 2003 were released, among them the husband of Ladies in White founder Laura Pollan.
But the summer also brought an escalation of attacks against the Ladies in White by Castro thugs and state security goons as the women once again became victims of brutal beatings and attacks at the hands of the regime.
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