Harsh Repression Against Cuban Civic Opposition Movement

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Harsh Repression Against Cuban Civic Opposition Movement
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Numerous Activists Arrested, Including Former Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience

Miami. Directorio Democrático Cubano. 3 July 2008. Numerous pro-democracy and human rights activists from different regions of Cuba have been arrested in an operation launched by the Castro regime beginning on the night of Wednesday July, 2.

The activists, including former political prisoners like Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” and former Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience like Francisco Chaviano González, René Montes de Oca Martijas and Leonardo Bruzón Ávila are under arrest and their whereabouts are unknown, or are being held under house arrest, according to reports by Cuban activists Juan Carlos González Leiva from the Cuban Human Rights Rapporteur Council and Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello from Agenda for the Transition.

These instances of repression are taking place after the publication of a communique from the regime’s Foreign Ministry announcing punitive measures against peaceful opposition activists under the pretext of the activists’ contacts with United States diplomats in Havana.

More information concerning additional arrests is expected in the following hours.

The activists who are under arrest and whose whereabouts are unknown are:

Francisco Chaviano González (Havana)

Leonardo Bruzón Ávila (Havana)

Carlos Cordero Páez (Havana)

Julio César López Rodríguez (Havana)

Emilio Leyva Pérez (Havana)

Maiky Martorell Mayáns (Las Tunas)

Francisco Blanco Sanabria (Cienfiuegos)

Tania de la Torre Montesinos (Granma)

Juan Carlos Hernández Hernández (Santiago de Cuba)

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina (Guantánamo)