CUBA: Organizations call upon international community on increased violence and deaths of human rights defenders prior to review of Cuba at UN
By Directorio Democrático Cubano

Miami, April 30, 2013. Several organizations within Cuba, in exile and internationally issued a warning alert about the growing repression in the island, the suspicious deaths of leaders of the civic movement in Cuba and the use of physical and psychological violence against human rights defenders this Tuesday in Miami. On May 1, 2013, the UN’s Human Rights Council will discuss the human rights situation in Cuba from the past four years. Numerous organizations within the island sent reports to the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its reports are reflected in some of the material to be discussed before the regime in Geneva. Also, exile and international organizations did as well. "This press conference issues a wake-up call about the growing violence in Cuba by the regime in Havana against human rights defenders, the death of renowned leaders and human rights activists and abuse against families and children of the same", said Laida Carro of the Coalition of Cuban American Women, one of the organizations that participated in the press conference and had sent a report to the UN on the issue of the violation of the rights of children, previously. Regis Iglesias, spokesman for the Christian Liberation Movement, who presented the report of the Centrist Democrat International on the suspicious deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero called for an end to impunity, the threats against opponents especially requested for the family of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas which continues to be the victim of death threats. Idania Yanez Contreras and Bertha Antunez, members of the Central Opposition Coalition and the Rosa Parks Movement, both organizations based in Cuba, as well as members of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, the Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba and the Citizens' Committee Against Mistreatment joined the outcry of those present to report the increase in arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, violence against women human rights defenders, and ill-treatment and torture in the prisons. "The human rights situation in Cuba continues to worsen. We have reported the more than six thousand arrests during 2012, and in 2013 the situation worsens. There are unexplained deaths of recognized human rights activists such as Laura Pollan, Oswaldo Paya, and others for which there should be international investigations opened. We need an end to impunity in this country, “said Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva via telephone from Havana. ###

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Directorio Democrático Cubano
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In Memory of Mario Manuel de la Peña