The “Damas de Blanco” (Ladies in White) were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the EU Parliament in 2005. According to activists and the American embassy in Cuba, some of them have now apparently been dragged away by agents of the state security apparatus.
Activists at a Damas de Blanco rally in Havana on November 1, 2015.
(dpa)
According to activists and the American embassy, members of the human rights organization “Ladies in White” were arrested during a peaceful protest in Cuba. A video and several photos were circulated on social networks on Sunday, showing women in civilian clothes – who are said to have been agents of the state security apparatus – on a street dragging at least five women dressed in white with flowers in their hands and apparently took it with them.
This happened, according to the information, when several activists, together with the mother of a detained 17-year-old, left the organization’s office in Havana to demonstrate for the release of political prisoners linked to the mass protests last July 11. The American Embassy in Cuba wrote on Twitter that it condemned the arrests. The “Damas de Blanco” (Ladies in White) were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the EU Parliament in 2005.
Relatives of participants in protests against Cuba’s government in July 2021 show photos. Six months after the demonstrations, more than 50 participants face sentences of up to 30 years in prison.
During the spontaneous mass protests in July – the largest against the socialist government in decades – demonstrations were held in several cities on the Caribbean island state for freedom and against repression and mismanagement. According to information from the US-based human rights organization Cubalex, almost 1,400 people were arrested, of whom at least 727 are still in custody – 15 of them under the age of 18.
According to activists, trials against the demonstrators have been taking place behind closed doors in Cuba for a few weeks now. According to the International Society for Human Rights, among them was a German-Cuban man living in Germany who had filmed the protests with a mobile phone.