Ladies in White arrested by Cuban dictatorship on their way to church

From our Bureau of Socialist Tolerance and Open-Mindedness with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Respect for Religious and Civil Liberties

Once again, the Ladies in White have been prevented from attending Sunday Mass. At least 17 of them were arrested and slapped with fines. This has happened so many times that no one is keeping track of the numbers anymore. Yet another instance of socialism in action.

Loosely translated from Marti Noticias

At least 17 activists from the Ladies in White movement were detained this Sunday when they tried to reach different churches in Cuba to pray for the release of political prisoners, said Berta Soler, the leader of the organization, who was one of those arrested during the day, to Martí Noticias.

This was the 78th Sunday of repression against the peaceful organization and other activists who support them, Soler emphasized. The opposition leader explained that in Havana, one of the Ladies in White was detained, “fined with 30 pesos in national currency and released after eighteen hours (of detention).”

In the Cuban capital, one of the activists supporting the Ladies was also detained, according to Berta Soler, who added that only five members of the leading movement were able to participate in the Sunday Mass.

“In Santa Clara, two Ladies in White were detained,” Soler denounced, adding that, in Banes, Holguín, two members of the group participated in the Mass.

In the province of Matanzas, 12 were arrested and four managed to attend Mass.

“I want to say that the number of participants in Mass and detentions may increase, as there are Ladies in White who have not reported,” Soler concluded.

The leader of the female opposition movement and her husband, former political prisoner Ángel Moya, were detained by members of the Cuban political police when they were leaving the organization’s headquarters and remained under arrest for more than 12 hours, as they denounced on their social networks.

Moya described on Facebook that he and Soler went out to the street “chanting slogans for the freedom of political prisoners and down with the communist regime of Cuba!” around noon on Sunday. Immediately after, they were “intercepted and arrested by paramilitary women,” and taken separately to the Aguilera police unit in the capital.

Once there, “a doctor tried to perform a medical check-up on us, and we refused because the doctor stated that she would not give a copy of the medical check-up report, but would give it to the repressors,” Moya denounced.