Belinda Salas Tapanes
UPDATED, Sept. 24, 2009 — Belinda Salas Tapanes was released from police custody on Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after she was released.
Belinda Salas Tapanes, president of a dissident group campaigning to break the economic apartheid the Castro dictatorship imposes on the Cuban people, was arrested this morning in Havana, according to Misceláneas de Cuba.
Salas, who also is a correspondent for the Sweden-based Web site, was taken away after Cuban security agents searched the Havana apartment she shares with her husband, the former political prisoner Lázaro Alonso Román.
As of this afternoon, Salas' whereabouts were unknown, which is even more alarming considering she is about 30 weeks pregnant
Salas is president of the Federation of Latin American Women (FLAMUR), one of the more effective opposition groups in Cuba. FLAMUR currently is leading a campaign to abolish a dual currency system that leaves most Cubans in poverty because the money they are paid with is almost worthless.
As part of the campaign, for example, FLAMUR activists have conducted sit-ins at restaurants that don't cater to most Cubans because they only accept the more valuable "convertible" pesos paid to government employees, tourism workers and other "privileged" Cubans.
The "con la misma moneda" campaign is challenging one of the ways the dictatorship uses to oppress and repress the Cuban people in their everyday lives.
So it is not a surprise that the dictatorship this morning came knocking on Salas' door.
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