14ymedio, Havana, 9 April 2019 — The month of March ended with 185 arbitrary arrests of activists, according to the latest report of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), released Monday. The independent organization warns that “the regime continues to choose ‘low intensity’ political repression.”
The CCDHR reports that “there were 37 acts of harassment and at least one physical aggression, repressive actions that feed the atmosphere of intimidation that is part of daily life in Cuba.”
The document confirms the official pattern of “short-term arrests and other forms of repression in which the repressors of the powerful and ubiquitous secret political police (State Security) are experts.”
With regards to political prisoners, the CCDHRN denounces the imprisonment of José Antonio Pompa López, member of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civic Action Front, interned in Prison 1580 west of Havana.
“The current count of political prisoners puts the total number of prisoners between 130 and 140 prisoners,” the report details, noting that the organization will soon offer “a more accurate figure.”
The authorities frequently attribute common crimes, such as “assault” and “pre-criminal dangerousness,” to the activists, which makes it difficult to specify the number of inmates held for political reasons.
In 2018 there were 2,873 arbitrary arrests in Cuba, about 240 a month, according to the CCDHRN in its annual report. The independent entity denounced the harassment of activists who only “tried to exercise elementary civil and political rights.”
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