A year after papal visit to Cuba, dissidents arrested in crackdown remain in jail
Pope Benedict XVI is no longer pope, but Cuban dissidents Sonia Garro Alfonso and her husband Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, who were arrested March 18, 2012, during a pre-papal visit crackdown by the Castro regime, remain in jail.At least the pope had the option of choosing his current circumstance.
According to Amnesty International, the couple was arrested at their home in Havana after 50 police forced their way into the house and fired rubber bullets at them. Sonia Garro Alfonso was wounded in the foot.
Exiled Cuban writer Zoe Valdes wrote about Garro in her open letter to U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama:
This coming March 18th will mark one year since opposition member Sonia Garro Alfonso and her husband Ramón Alejandro Muñoz have been imprisoned without a trial or sentence handed down. She suffers from a cyst on her kidneys and is gravely ill. He suffers from an ulcer. Nevertheless, Cuban authorities have prohibited their family members from taking them food and medication in prison. Her daughter, who is a minor, has had to move in with an aunt who has three children of her own and has been subjected to merciless repression by Castro agents.
…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
