CUBA: Female Student Beaten and Expelled for Wearing a CAMBIO (CHANGE) Bracelet

Press Releases

From Cuba

Articles

Human Rights

Media Coverage

» Press Releases

CUBA: Female Student Beaten and Expelled for Wearing a CAMBIO (CHANGE) Bracelet
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Holguín. 4 June 2008. Cuban Democratic Directorate. Lisandra Domínguez Mora, a student at a vocational program for young adults in Buenaventura, Holguín who is also a human rights activist with the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Pro Human Rights Movement, was beaten and expelled from the program for wearing a white bracelet bearing the word CAMBIO or “CHANGE” on May 30th.

The school authorities, among them leaders of the Young Communists Union and the Federation of University Students, informed the young woman that she had to leave the school grounds immediately due to her activism and because she wore a CAMBIO bracelet.

That morning as Lisandra arrived at school, she was attacked in an “act of repudiation” organized by school authorities. Her notebooks were ripped into pieces as well as a book on human rights she was carrying. Agents of the National Revolutionary Police and State Security arrived at the scene and savagely beat her.

“They shoved their fingers in my mouth and broke my lips trying to get me to stop shouting,” stated Lisandra to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Lisandra and other activists of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Pro Human Rights Movement who were there to support the young woman were beaten by regime police and State Security agents.

Fellow activists Delmides Fidalgo López, a Christian minister from Buenaventura, his wife Damaris Velázque Arévalo, and José Luis Cabrera Cruz were also among the victims of the beatings. They were subsequently arrested by the National Revolutionary Police.

“They lacerated one of my fingers, and without any pity for Lisandra and Cabrera, they beat them with all their strength. They kicked and dragged Delmides under a horse carriage, trying to kill him. Afterward, they took them to the police unit. Our daughters screamed but they didn’t care. There were more than 90 people attacking us and shouting at us, calling us ‘worms,’ ‘counterrevolutionaries,’ and all types of insults,” stated Damaris Velázquez Arévalo.

“I will continue going to school even if they beat me and oppress me. I will continue to demand my rights as a student,” declared Lisandra on Friday, May 30 on a Radio República broadcast.

Send by E-mail | Printable Version

About the author