August 28: The Ladies in White, a group comprising relatives of jailed dissidents, appealed to leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement to press the Cuban government for the release of political prisoners during next month's summit in Havana. The group said the Communist regime in Havana could show progress on the human rights front by "immediately and unconditionally freeing" the 60 dissidents who remain behind bars more than three years after being arrested and sentenced in a harsh crackdown. The Ladies also urged the Non-Aligned governments to ask Cuba to guarantee that it will not re-arrest a dozen of the "Group of 75" who have been released from custody on medical grounds. "They are innocent, as all they did was try to exercise their freedom of expression. Equally, some 300 existing peaceful political prisoners should be freed," the organization said. Honored last year by the European Parliament with the Sakharov Prize for human-rights activism, the Ladies in White is made up of wives, mother, sisters and other female kin of the members of the Group of 75. (EFE, 28/8/06)
August 22: Government repressive forces and the Quick Response Brigades resorted to violence to suppress activists from the Independent Movement “Alternative Option” (MIOA) during a fasting ceremony in which the dissidents were demanding that the Cuban authorities release all political prisoners. About 40 government enforcers gathered outside the human rights group’s head office in Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas and blocked all access to the venue while yelling out threats. Several activists were arrested. (Cubanet, 23/8/06)
August 22: Activist Martha Beatriz Roque has an unusual request for the Cuban government: stop the harassment or send her back to jail. The former political prisoner, who has opposed Fidel Castro for 17 years, says she can no longer endure the threats and insults by government supporters, who yell at her when she walks down the street, slip menacing notes under her door and last weekend banged a pistol against her window in the middle of the night. "This life has become just about impossible," Roque, one of Cuba's most high-profile dissidents, told the press in her small Havana apartment. "I would rather be behind bars than dealing with this constant harassment." Roque said harassment has been steady since July 31, when Castro announced he was ceding power to his younger brother while he recovered from stomach surgery. Every time Roque opens her door, she's greeted with a huge portrait of Castro, hung by his supporters.
"This has been an offensive with no end," she said. Roque says she suspects that state security agents are among her new neighbors. "Put me in a prison cell, where no one can bother me," said Roque, who sent letters to the island's Justice and Interior Ministries in May asking the government to either stop the aggressive acts or put her back in jail. Earlier this month, the Justice Ministry told her the issue did not fall under its jurisdiction and that she should contact the attorney general's office. She's deciding whether to do that or, instead, to launch a protest outside government offices in Havana's Revolution Plaza. (AP, 23/8/06)
August 19: Cuban dissidents differed in their reactions to the first public statements from Raul Castro since he took over as provisional leader of Cuba. For Vladimiro Roca, founder of the illegal opposition group All United, the interim leader's statements are "more of the same; it's repetition, it doesn't contribute anything new to the national situation." "They authorized him (to give the interview); without getting Fidel's order, he wasn't going to speak," Roca told the press. "To date there's not one thing that shows that (Raul Castro) is in charge of the country, not the least sign of change," he said. By contrast, Manuel Cuesta Morua, leader of the moderate dissident organization Arco Progresista, said that "we are already seeing an acting head of state." "We're seeing the second step that confirms that the succession is for real and that strangely he's trying to legitimize himself to the United States with this call for them to respect what is established in the Cuban constitution, which is the same as calling for them to respect the succession," he said. Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who was jailed along with 74 other democracy activists and independent journalists in the spring of 2003 but later released for health reasons, said it is "desirable that in future statements (Raul Castro) expresses the interim government's position regarding the measures to take with regard to the current worrying problems in Cuba." Laura Pollan, a member of the Ladies in White, which comprises relatives of the 75 imprisoned Cuban dissidents, said that the wives of the jailed opponents of the regime believe that "the Cuban problem should be solved by Cubans." "We ask (Raul Castro) to make a goodwill gesture, so that the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement is celebrated in a more euphoric manner, and release the prisoners and return them to our homes," said Pollan. (EFE, 19/8/06)
August 13: In an effort to prevent any dissident activities on the day of Fidel Castro's birthday, a mob of communist militants besieged the home of former political prisoner Minaldo Ramos Fernández, also the headquarters for the "Comision Nacional Cuba", a civil organization that promotes peaceful civil disobedience in the island. "The mob in question surrounded my home for over twelve hours, not allowing anyone to enter the house and prevented me from going out of the house, stating that they were not going to allow counterrevolutionary activities on Castro's birthday", Ramos Fernández said to the independent press. (Puente Informativo, 17/8/06)
August 12: According to his wife, Cruz Delia Aguilar, non-violent opposition activist Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara was the target of a public act of “citizen’s rejection” carried out by members of the Quick Response Brigades. Nearly 50 demonstrators from the so-called “brigades” stood outside our home, yelling out insults, said Aguilar. Valdés Guevara, 52, a former prisoner of conscience from the Group of the 75, is currently at home under the terms of an extrapenal license because he suffers from a chronic renal condition. For months the authorities have denied him authorization to leave the country. (Cubanet, 15/8/06)
August 8: The press freedom and journalists' rights organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked for a "gesture of mercy" for reporters in Cuba from Raul Castro, who has exercised power provisionally there since the sudden serious illness of his brother Fidel last week. In a communique, the Paris-based RSF said it was waiting for a "gesture of mercy" from Raul Castro regarding the 23 journalists imprisoned on the Communist island since the anti-opposition crackdown in 2003, adding that it was "urgent" for the provisional leader to react on the matter. RSF also noted that the Cuban regime is the second largest jailer of journalists in the world, after China. (EFE, 8/8/06)
August 6: Organized by Cuban authorities, an angry demonstration (acto de repudio) took place outside the residence of dissident Caridad García Braojo, in the Vedado neighborhood, Havana City. Among the demonstrators were members of the “quick response brigades” and the political police. (Bitácora Cubana, 9/8/06)
August 6: The Ladies in White, comprised of the wives and loved ones of imprisoned Cuban dissidents, asked Raul Castro to give a signal of change on this Communist island by freeing the regime's political prisoners, and they announced that they would continue their peaceful demonstrations. Eight members of the group, which was formed in 2003 after the regime sentenced 75 dissidents to lengthy prison terms, came to the Santa Rita Church in Havana's Miramar neighborhood as they do every Sunday to pray for their family members, and afterwards they marched down Quinta Ave. carrying gladiolas and lilies. With very few other worshippers on hand, the Ladies in White members listened to the Cuban Bishops Conference communique read at the end of the Mass in which the Catholic hierarchy asks Cubans to pray for God to be with Fidel Castro during his recovery from emergency intestinal surgery and to enlighten his brother Raul, to whom Fidel temporarily turned over power for the first time ever. (EFE, 7/8/06)
August 5: Independent journalist Santiago Albert DuBouchet Hernández, head of the news agency 'Havana Press', was released after serving out a one-year prison term in the province of Havana. DuBouchet Hernández had been sentenced to 312 days in prison by the Artemisa Municipal People’s Court for allegedly resisting arrest. (Puente Informativo, 5/8/06)
August 4: In Banes, in the Holguin province, dissident Guillermo Llanos Ricardo, 30, said the town's only independent library was surrounded by citizen patrol groups checking the identification of anyone seeking to enter. "These are well-known groups that have incited violence against dissidents in the past," he said. Meanwhile, Eliecer Consuegra Rivas, 33, the head of the opposition group Eastern Democratic Alliance in the city of Antilla also in Holguin, attributed the relative calm on the streets to fear of reprisal. He said he has been repeatedly warned not to speak out informally by neighbours and officially by government representatives. (Gainesville.Com, 4/8/06)
August 3: The house of Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Paneque’s wife and four children in Las Tunas, Cuba, was surrounded and attacked by a mob of about 100 persons armed with sticks, stones, and parasols shouting "Get out of here!" "Assassins!", "Terrorists!". For an hour and a half, neighbors, ranging from young children to elderly people, shouted insults at Yamile Llanes and her young children, as well as at seven Catholic young people who were staying at her house while on their way to the Sanctuary of The Virgin of Cobre in Santiago de Cuba. "My seven-year old daughter, Maria, held on to her older sister, and her screams were uncontrollable because she was terrified when a woman shouted that they were going to set the house on fire so that they would do away with the ‘worms’", Yamile said. Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, a Cuban physician and prisoner of conscience, was summarily tried and is serving a 25-year sentence for expressing independent ideas. He remains in "Las Mangas" prison hospital in Bayamo alongside common prisoners. He is suffering from an intestinal disease. (Medicina Cubana, 21/8/06)
August 1: A placard bearing the inscription “Never Caught Off Guard” appeared across from the residence of Laura Pollán, a member of the Ladies in White, a group of relatives of political prisoners. This and two other posters proclaiming “With Our Guard Up” and “Always Vigilant” were put up following the broadcast of a message from Fidel Castro to the people of Cuba. (Cubanet, 3/8/06)
