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Increased repression in Cuba against human rights defenders
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, Rosa Parks Feminist Movement leader whereabouts unknown

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, Rosa Parks Feminist Movement leader whereabouts unknown

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, Rosa Parks Feminist Movement leader whereabouts unknown

Cuba. May 26, 2011. Cuban Democratic Directorate. Human rights defenders in central Cuba are alarmed by the beating and disappearance of opposition leader Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera in the morning hours of May 25 during the activities that closed the Zapata and Boitel Live Activism Memorial. According to Adriano Castañeda Meneses, executive member of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front , two activists from Placetas: Donaida Pérez Paseiro and Yaimara Reyes Mesa were released around 11 pm on May 25 after being arrested and beaten in the General Hospital of Placetas where they presented themselves to ask about Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, who had previously been arrested and taken to the hospital in an unconscious state. "After that they were released at around 11:00 pm and saw when a specialized brigade bus took Idania Yanes Contreras and her husband Alcides Rivera. They also saw when another patrol car took away a handcuffed Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera after she’d received a beating. It is not known whether she is in the hospital of Santa Clara because here in Placetas she cannot be found. Fellow activists have sought all possible sources of information and are reporting her as missing, "said Castañeda Meneses from Placetas. The activist said that it was known that Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" was being held at police headquarters in Placetas, but Yris and other detained activists are not there. "Yris was subjected to a brutal beating by the State Security agent known as “the weightlifter.” From the prison cell, they took her to the hospital and then returned her to the cell. Her hands were numb, she had nausea, headache, dizziness. She is epileptic, has diabetes, asthma. We do not know where they went with her. We do not know if she died or in what conditions they took her.” added Donaida Pérez Paseiro by telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate. The situation of police violence against human rights defenders in Cuba has increased over the past two months. The brutal beatings in public places by state security officials have led to the death of at least one activist in Santa Clara, Juan Soto Wilfredo Garcia, but this has not prevented the police of the totalitarian regime of the Castro brothers from continuing to beat and attack nonviolent advocates of the rights of the Cuban people. The Cuban Democratic Directorate alerts the international community about these developments and demands that authorities of the Havana regime provide information on the status of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera. At the moment there have been dozens of human rights defenders arrested in Cuba not only in Santa Clara and Placetas, but in Holguin, Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba. ###

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