Cuba’s Damas de Blanco
In 2003, Cuba imprisoned dozens of dissidents, lawyers, and journalists, whom it accused of colluding with the West to bring down the government. A few weeks after the jailings, a group of women, many of them the wives of the political prisoners, took to the streets of Havana dressed in white—to signify innocence—and demanded the release of their family members. Although most of the prisoners were let go some years later, many of the women have been blacklisted and are unable to find work. And so, the group Damas de Blanco (“Ladies in White”) persists. Its members demonstrate every Sunday after attending mass together. But so far, their actions have done little to end government repression, and before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba in March, the police arrested around 50 ladies in white during their usual post-mass protest.
View all the photos HERE.