Cuban authorities detain woman opposing political imprisonments
Monday, May 24, 2004
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuban authorities on
Saturday detained a 62-year-old member of a women's group that seeks the
liberation of political dissidents imprisoned by the communist government of
President Fidel Castro, dissidents said.
Maria Alpizar Ariosa, a freelance journalist and member of Women in White, was
taken to a Havana police station where she was told she would immediately be
brought back to her home in Placetas, 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of the
capital, the Cuban Committee for National Reconciliation and Human Rights said
in a statement. "I have the strong feeling
that Cuba's government is trying to dismantle and disperse the group of
mothers, wives and other family members of political prisoners who meet on
Sundays" to pray for the prisoners' health and freedom," committee president
Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz said. Women in
White members meet at the Santa Rita church in Havana on Sundays, and
sometimes gather in nearby parks and streets to hold silent protests.
Sixteen dissidents have been convicted in the last four weeks, Sanchez's
committee said. There are some 330 political
prisoners in Cuba, including 88 who are recognized by international human
rights groups as prisoners of conscience, according to the committee.
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
