Cuba Clamps Down on 'Ladies In White' Protest

[Mika]

More RW spin from the nytimes.

Cuba Clamps Down on 'Ladies In White' Protest
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/18/world/international-uk-cuba-dissidents.html

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban authorities blocked the weekly protest march by the dissident group "Ladies in White" on Sunday and set government supporters shouting and jeering at them for more than two hours.

The incident appeared to signal the government's determination to end the silent marches the women have conducted for seven years seeking the release of their family members from prison.

Nine women from the group showed up on Sunday at their traditional gathering point, a mass at the Santa Rita Catholic Church in Havana's Miramar neighbourhood, but when they went out to make their usual silent walk along Fifth Avenue, officials said they could not unless they had a permit.

"We are not going to stop until you give us an order in writing that we need a permit," leader Laura Pollan told authorities before the crowd set in.

The women linked arms, held up flowers and stood mostly silent under the verbal abuse from government supporters.

The incident ended when state security agents forced the white-clad dissidents into a bus and whisked them away. They were driven to their homes.

Three of the nine women were helped from the crowd earlier when they grew faint after standing for so long under the warm sun and the hot breath of 100 chanting government supporters.

The women, who dress in white, have staged the marches since shortly after their husbands and sons were jailed in a government crackdown on its opponents in March 2003.

The marches, held under the watchful eyes of state security agents, have been the only known public protests regularly allowed by Cuban authorities since the early 1960s.

But officials appear to be clamping down after the women marched through Havana for seven days last month in widely publicized protests.

Those marches drew international criticism when the women were harassed by large numbers of government supporters, and they came at a time when Cuba was already under fire for the February death of imprisoned dissident hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Authorities recently told the women they would now have to get a permit to march each week, which they refused to do.

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[protocol rv]

1. Tell me Mika

Do the government supporters insult these women or not?

[Mika]

2. Denouncing the aiders and abettors of enemies and terrorists does not mean gov supporters.

Even lefties boosted Bush's approval after 911. In general citizens unite against terrorists with a history against their nation, and their supporters.

And why isn't their right to free speech just as important to you?

On Cuban TV national news tonight they showed the arrest of a "pro gov" supporter being arrested for spitting at the "ladies".

I bet we'll see a crackdown on the crowds that are verbally accosting the ladies, and then we'll hear hew and cry from the peanut gallery of Castro's repression.

While I respect the right of people to disagree on economics, energy policy, etc etc, your support for the aiders and abettors of terrorists and enemies of Cuba is not lost on readers of this forum.

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[protocol rv]

3. I would suspect it's organized by the Cuban regime

Those counter demonstrations are too virulent to be self-started. They're organized. Why do I know this? Because Cubans are pretty easy going people, hell, they are just like us Venezuelans, and neither nere, nor in Cuba, people in their right mind would start shouting and hassling 9 old women who are walking around because they want their relatives out of jail. It's not normal latin character, my friend, to disrespect women this way. Hell, if they did then the people in the neighborhood would come out and take care of them. So my take is this is orgnized, and there are some very sick ponies being egged on by communist party honchos. Also, my Cuban friends tell me they are really ashamed to see such behavior - and they assure me it's government inspired.

You see, Mika, you are a gringo. And even if you live in Cuba you'll never really get it. To us in latin America it's not normal behavior to do what those Cuban pro-government people are doing - hell, maybe they would do it in Argentina, those guys tend to be more tightly wound and they are all Italians anyway. But around normal people, what they are doing is just too cruel, too made up, it's not natural, it's gross. It's downright alien to our behavior pattern. And this is something you don't get - you'll never get it. And this is why in the end we always tell you, yankee go home, pretty please.

[flamingdem]

4. The point is WHO has WHAT to gain in the Ladies in White Game

It's not easy to pinpoint who is verbally attacking the Ladies. The only way to figure that out is to see what happens, what is the goal of the group vs. the government. I find it hard to believe also that the attacking group is independent from the government but its important to remember there are factions in the government. Different ministries advocate for different things and have different interests.

The government would probably like things to go back to normal. The women were marching for years without the international media fuss. However, the women are now getting advice from outsiders, unclear again who this is but we KNOW there is money flowing into Cuba to foment this. This advice probably is:

- focus on the lack of a clear government law about marching and hammer that to the international media to make the Cuban government look incompetent, and the main goal of the outside influencers is to make Cuba look IMMORAL, which they are not in spite of the unfortunate heavy handedness that happens and is pumped up by international media.

- so ask yourself why don't the women just get the permit? Not if they can gain a propaganda edge without it. I would feel differently if I knew it was impossible to get the permit, in which case it's a Kafkaesque situation, but that is not the complaint they are making.

- why are the women setting themselves up for conflict? I think they feel immune and if arrested they will gain more attention for their husbands cases

- so the Cuban government is between a rock and a hard place .. something the WOMEN might not have been sophisticated or brave enough to take advantage of before... but with INPUT from encouraging OUTSIDERS and Juanes pushing for a NOBEL PRIZE for them, they have NADA to LOOSE.


The problem is who is going to expend the energy to see this situation behind the smoke screen, Protocol can't see it, Juanes can't see it, it's not convenient for Gloria to see it, most others cannot, so this is why it is seen as a propaganda war against Cuba, which it is.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Insightful post, flamingdem. The women know they are safe, absolutely.

I've seen photos of Marta Beatriz Roque over the years having someone snapping her photo as she holds her arm up to immortalize a tiny bruise or whatever she can produce to "prove" to the world she is being brutalized by the Cuban government. She's a hideous old beast who lives to get on camera any way she can, and she takes money from the Miami terrorist Santiago Alvarez, which has been captured on a taped phone conversation she had.

It's absolutely a profession for some of them. Here are two photos of Marta Beatriz Roque. One is an ordinary image of her sour, repulsive face, and the other shows her showing "abuse" near her elbow which looks very much like either a cigarette burn, which easily happens to a great many people who either smoke, or are around people who smoke a lot, or it's an insect bite, quite likely to happen in Cuba, or a "boil", another ordinary event. The one thing of which I believe everyone can be 100% certain is that no one in the Cuban government did it to her. If it's a burn she'll probably survive. I had several burns during the years I used to smoke and they are NOTHING to try to exploit. Very NOT life-threatening.

http://www.cubaverdad.net.nyud.net:8090/images/dissidents/beatriz_roque_01.jpg http://www.lanuevacuba.com.nyud.net:8090/graficas/martha-beatriz-roque-4-2006.jpg
Thank you for making the points which don't get discussed. I have no doubt you're right.

By the way, Marta has been associated with these women in white for ages, and she is hardly any kind of victim. The world has been her victim.

On edit, here's Marta with her Women in White. What a nasty old dragon. I hate the thought they have stolen the name of a group of people whose children and grandchildren were tortured, and murdered by the ultra-right-wing Argentinian government, which was most certainly supported by the right-wing element of the U.S. government, Henry Kissinger being a constant contact with the leaders. The women in white in Cuba are connected with the same kind of people who, in Argentina, was murdering the leftists there, and chasing them down in other countries and killing them there if they had escaped being destroyed in Argentina. It's such a dirty act, naming themselves after TRUE martyrs who saw their children terrorized and brutally murdered.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/dissidents/roque-16.jpg

"Roque joins the Damas de Blanco as they finish their march
on Dec. 9, 2007 in Havana. The Damas de Blanco, 50 Cuban
women, dress in white and wear photos of prisoners during
their weekly protest march in the Havana Playa neighborhood
to demand the liberty of their husbands, fathers and brothers,
who are prisoners of conscience. This protest took place one
day before International Human Rights Day."

[Mika]

8. A couple of points.

flamingdem, good analysis.

The women were marching for years without the international media fuss. However, the women are now getting advice from outsiders, unclear again who this is but we KNOW there is money flowing into Cuba to foment this.

They always were getting advice - and money too. The ladies have lived well from the US money their home-based businesses were paid.

Its hard for Cuban authorities to look immoral considering that they drove an extended bus route to drive the ladies to their homes under protection, not to any jail. This is even right in the stories of their "abusive" treatment.

Permits can be had. MSM can't be bothered doing any research. The ladies were pulled off of the plaza a couple of weeks ago because another political group had a permit to use the plaza. Even teabaggers take out permits.

Why are the women "setting themselves up" for conflict? You've posted some stories on the increases in US funding and the covert programs of direct distribution to anonymous dissidents, (supposedly to cut out Miami's middle men) - these programs will attempt to destroy credibility of some of the indigenous opposition who will constantly have to face scrutiny over funding (mission accomplished) to avert taint. The ultimate goal is visible right here in some of DU's LatAm forum postings - to create the false perception that all opposition in Cuba is a monolith requiring foreign funding, and that there is no native born/funded political movements within "Castro's gulag". The real and complete spectrum of Cuba's political system and native opposition is, again, obfuscated. Only a few of us who have been there and taken the time to do some research know this diversity to be true.

In short, the ladies are part of a foreign (US) orchestrated plan to kick it up a notch or two in the scramble for dollars (and all of the opportunity for payola, campaign kickbacks, skimming, scamming, and straight up stealing that the anti Cuba industry creates). They even possibly created and paid the "mobs" of "government supporters" to complete the stagecraft for public consumption.

Its about money. Normalization is in the air. The mad dash is on to create yet another diversion/excuse to maintain the status quo.

:hi:

Your very informative threads ....

The War Against Cuba: New Budgets, Same Premise
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x34756

What American politicians got “contributions” from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC for the first quarter
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x34691

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[flamingdem]

5. PS Protocol for your info, the Cubans hate the Venezuelans who come to Cuba

take advantage of medical care and housing and hit on their women, flash their money around, and are cheap. So I've heard jeje

[EFerrari]

6. Good thinking. Make USAID spring for the permit.