Several Cuban dissidents were arrested on Monday shortly before the call for a demonstration called by the opposition despite the prohibition of the authorities, who assure that peace reigns in the streets.
Manuel Cuesta Morua, 58, vice president of the Council for Democratic Transition, “was arrested by State Security today at about one in the afternoon (6:00 p.m. GMT) leaving the house” in Havana, said his wife, Nairobi Scheri.
Briefly detained in September, Cuesta Morua said then after being released that he was threatened for calling the demonstration for this Monday.
The leader of the dissident movement Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and her husband, the former politician Ángel Moya, were also detained, as announced on Twitter by dissident Martha Beatriz Roque.
Another dissident, Guillermo Fariñas, has been detained since Friday.
Many opponents, promoters of the demonstration and independent journalists denounced in recent days on social networks that they were blocked from their homes by State Security agents.
Several of them said they were victims of acts of repudiation, demonstrations by government supporters used for years to rebuke dissidents. They also reported that their internet was cut off.
Along the emblematic coastal boardwalk of this capital, groups of three officers were posted almost at every corner, especially in the downtown section of the city, while state security agents in civilian clothes were also deployed in squares and parks, he noted. the AFP.
Despite the ban, the political discussion group on Facebook Archipiélago, with 37,000 members inside and outside Cuba, maintains its call in Havana and six provinces from 3:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT) to demand the freedom of political prisoners.
“Campaign against Cuba”
This call comes four months after the historic and spontaneous demonstrations of July 11, which left one dead, dozens injured and 1,270 people detained, of which 658 are still in prison, according to the human rights NGO Cubalex.
The protesters called to wear white and if they could not go out to protest, hang white sheets on the balconies.
The 39-year-old playwright Yunior García, founder of the Archipelago group and spearhead of a new generation of Cuban dissidents driven by the rise of social networks, was still prevented from leaving his home on Monday by plainclothes security agents, confirmed an AFP journalist.
His plan to go out on Sunday to march with only a white rose in hand, was canceled by security agents who blocked his building.
The government accused the opposition of sabotaging its efforts to celebrate the return to normalcy after months of shutting down the country and schools due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is how Cuba dawns on November 15, with more than 700,000 pioneers [alumnos] in the classrooms, receiving friends, family and tourists, reactivating productive activities, reducing COVID cases ”, said President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Twitter.
The president denounced on Sunday the intention to “subvert the internal order” and “media campaigns against Cuba,” promising that “Cuba will live in peace.” On Monday, several officials posted photos of the island’s streets on social media, assuring that calm reigns.
“Cuba will continue to be a destination for peace tourism,” said Prime Minister Manuel Marrero during a ceremony for the reopening to international tourism.
Threats of criminal sanctions
The island is experiencing its worst economic crisis in almost 30 years, with a serious shortage of food and medicine, as well as growing social discontent and the confrontation is at its highest level between defenders and critics of the government.
Authorities accuse the organizers of the protest of being agents trained and financed by the United States to provoke regime change. For this reason they banned the demonstration and threatened them with criminal sanctions.
A deterrent warning, after sentences of up to 30 years in prison have been requested for some of the protesters imprisoned by July 11, according to independent Cuban media.
France urged on Monday in a statement to the Cuban authorities “to guarantee the right of the Cuban population to assemble and demonstrate peacefully,” noting that it continues “with concern” about the situation.
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, asked Havana on Monday “to respect the human rights of Cubans and allow them to meet peacefully.”
Instead, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expressed his admiration for the “arrogance” of Cuba, which, he said, acts as a “free and independent” country.
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