To the “foreign minister” and the drunken little brother: shove that Sun-Sentinel headline up your lying asses, and forget the UN pacts, do you think anyone buys your BS? High five to Ray Sanchez for this article.
Havana – Government supporters roughed up a dozen peaceful demonstrators marking International Human Rights Day with a silent march Monday.
The melee broke out shortly after Cuba announced its intention to sign two U.N. pacts on political and civil rights, part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said at a news conference Monday morning that Cuba had agreed to sign the agreements in the coming months after years of what he called anti-Cuban manipulation of the U.N.’s human rights body by the United States.
“Cuba is not acting, nor will it ever act, under pressure,” he said.
Moments after Perez Roque’s news conference, anti-government demonstrators led by dissident Darsi Ferrer locked arms and embarked on a silent march around a Havana park, located near the U.N. offices.
As the demonstrators marched and a handful of other people joined them, government supporters shouted “traitors” and “Viva Fidel.”
After circling the park, the marchers were quickly surrounded by dozens of government supporters and plainclothes security agents who pushed and shoved the protestors.
“Fidel! Fidel!” the government supporters shouted.
One demonstrator, an elderly man with a cane, was dragged away by security agents. The crowd pushed and shoved the other marchers for several blocks.
Another demonstrator, a young woman in her late teens or early 20s, was assaulted by a female government supporter who had to be pulled away by security agents. The demonstrators dispersed after about a half-hour as the angry crowd became more hostile.
Police have picked up dozens of dissidents in recent days for temporary detention, according to the island’s main rights group, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
It was unclear how many of Monday’s demonstrators were detained.
Read the article here.
Those are some truly brave people, as are the ones who have done it in the past. I’m not sure I’d have the courage to go out there knowing what was coming. As for the animals who accosted them, all I can hope for is that ‘payback will be a royal bitch’ someday when they don’t have a dictatorship to hide behind. I also hope that the pictures of all those thugs over the past few years are being kept by someone so we can pick them out in the future. GOD Bless the dissidents, and GOD D… the others!
Did I miss something? Wasn’t there supposed to be a big march at FIU today? I didn’t see anything about it- was it cancelled?
Claudia
http://www.claudia4libertad.com
Claudia, I don’t know how it went at FIU, but I participated in the march at Calle Ocho and 13th avenue and we had at least 100 participants and there was coverage from several tv stations. My Cambio poster done by Carlos Navarro was shown clearly in at least the Channel 41 coverage.
So, I guess this march got some press but did not appear to be too large which might not be good for the prospects of having another. Seems like there were more people yelling at the dissidents that there were dissidents.
I’m sure it takes a lot of courage to protest in Cuba. Does anyone know how many showed up?
Anyway, pretty sad that Raul has to “mobilize” against these few protesters. What’s he worried about?
And that Perez Roque has lost all my respect. Funny that he can actually say that Cuba will sign the Human rights pact for the “self determination” of the Cuban people.
Sure, self determination so long as they don’t do anything that represents freedom.