Crushing dissent in Cuba
Raul Castro (Reuters)
WHILE THE Syrian government’s savage attacks on anti-government protesters have rightly drawn the world’s attention, it isn’t only on the other side of the world that dictatorial rulers have been bloodying their critics.
In Cuba in recent weeks, pro-government goons have been attacking members of Ladies in White, a nonviolent protest group made up of women whose husbands, brothers, and fathers are dissidents imprisoned by the Castro regime. In one attack, the Miami Herald reported last week, the women were assaulted with “steel bars, rocks, and fists’’ as they left Mass in the cathedral of Santiago, the island’s second-largest city. At least eight of the women ended up in the hospital, where they required stitches and other treatment for their wounds. According to Elizardo Sanchez, one of Cuba’s leading human-rights activists, the attacks have left dissidents deeply alarmed; they know that no one “would dare order such beatings and so much violence without the approval of the central government.’’
Unlike Syria, Cuba has not seen massive street demonstrations, nor have there been public demands for the overthrow of the government. The Ladies in White, who received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 2005, are few and vulnerable; Cuban ruler Raul Castro has nothing to fear from them but their integrity and moral authority. That, however, they have in abundance, while the ruthless regime over which Castro and his brother Fidel have presided for more than half a century has long since lost any claim to the respect or admiration of the free world.
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"No es sólo al otro lado del mundo, en países como Siria, donde los dictadores derraman la sangre de sus críticos.
Las Damas de Blanco, merecedoras del Premio Sakharov son “pocas y vulnerables; Raúl Castro no tiene nada que temer de ellas, salvo por la integridad y la autoridad moral que estas mujeres tienen de sobra.
El periódico estadounidense da cuenta de las agresiones a pedradas y puñetazos que elementos pro gubernamentales han desatado contra esas mujeres, algunas de las cuales necesitaron hospitalización y puntos de sutura.
También El diario de Massachussets cita al disidente Elizardo Sánchez, de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional, quien opina que nadie emprendería en Cuba semejantes actos de violencia sin la aprobación del gobierno central.
Raúl Castro no tiene nada que temer del grupo de mujeres, laureadas con el Premio Sajarov del 2005, salvo su integridad y su autoridad moral.
Eso sí lo tienen en abundancia las Damas de Blanco, mientras que el régimen implacable que los Castro han encabezado por más de medio siglo perdió hace mucho tiempo el derecho al respeto o la admiración del mundo libre".
A usted hay que hacerle un monumento por defendernos. Gracias. Un fuerte abrazo.
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