Cuban Human Rights Group Denounces Record Number Of Political Arrests In November / EFE (Via 14ymedio)

Ladies in White and activists gathered at Gandhi Park. (Angel Moya)
Ladies in White and activists gathered at Gandhi Park. (Angel Moya)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 3 December 2015 — The dissident Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) reported Thursday that there were at least 1,447 political arrests in Cuba in November, the highest figure this year says opposition group says.

The monthly report issued by this organization, led by activist Elizardo Sanchez said that the repressive activity has been “remarkable,” especially against the women’s opposition group The Ladies in White, and those who “dare to accompany them” every Sunday on their usual walk.

On every one of these occasions, the activists and their companions are “brutally beaten and subjected to all kinds of humiliation” on being arrested by the “secret political police” at the end of the Sunday Mass they attend at Santa Rita Catholic Church in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar, according to the report.

The CCDHRN says that the Cuban regime responds “with every more increasing fury” against those who “are only demanding the release of the political prisoners and the respect for civil rights and other fundamental rights. ”

According to data from this dissident group, the repressive actions take place in all regions of the island, especially in the eastern and central provinces, where the opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) continues to be a “priority target.”

In its report, the CCDHRN accuses the Cuban government of “perfecting and enlarging its machinery of repression, propaganda and intimidation.”

The report also blames the government of the island for the “tragedy” being experienced by some 4,000 Cubans stranded on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in their quest to reach the United States “for being most responsible for the rising poverty and hopelessness that oppress the Cuban people. ”

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation is the only group on the island which records and publishes the numbers of these incidents in Cuba.