You can keep your cell phones.
And your DVD players. And your toaster ovens. And your stays in luxury tourist hotels.
None of that will make life easier for the Cuban Damas de Blanco. None of that is what they want.
What these brave women want, all they demand, is freedom for their husbands.
And their sons. And their brothers. And their nephews.
Because their loved ones — journalists, librarians, democracy activists and other dissidents — have been silenced by the Castro dictatorship and its gulag, the Damas, or "Ladies in White," have committed their lives to testifying on their behalf and demonstrating for their liberty.
Each Sunday, they attend Mass and then march down one of Havana's busiest streets in silent protest on behalf of Cuban political prisoners. On Monday, 10 Damas upped the pressure by trying to take their case straight to the top, straight to the office of dictator Raúl Castro.
"We are here to demand the release of our husbands and won't leave until they are free or they arrest us. We have waited long enough, we want to talk to the new president," group leader Laura Pollan said.
Reuters describes what happened next:
Moments later, a bus pulled up and about 20 female corrections officers tried to arrest the women, who sat on the sidewalk, clasped arms and refused to move."They are dying, they are dying," one women yelled with tears in her eyes.
A mob of about 100 government supporters, mainly women from nearby government buildings, quickly entered the fray, yelling insults while pushing the women, picking them up and shoving them into the waiting bus.
"After forcing them into the bus they dropped the Havana residents at their homes and sent the others back to their homes in the provinces," Marta Bonachea, a spokesperson for the women, told Reuters in a telephone interview
You can watch the video here:
It's easy to explain why the Damas were treated this way: Castro got scared. So he not only didn't give these women an audience, he sent his goons — that they were women doesn't make them less deserving of the moniker — to do his dirty work. It's standard operating procedure for the dictatorship, turning the Cuban people on each other.
In doing so, Castro, who has yet to show the same P.R. acumen as his big brother — didn't anyone notice the foreign journalists on scene to cover the protest? — did a big favor for anyone trying to convince others of the evil, vile nature of his regime.
Many days, it is frustrating challenge to crystallize the fundamentally cruel nature of the Castro dictatorship to terms that even the biggest fool or the biggest apologist can understand and maybe even accept. I confess I sometimes make myself numb as I try to describe the latest outrage committed against a political prisoner or other dissident, wondering if I am making a difference.
It gets even harder when the dictatorship changes the rules about what Cubans can buy and where they can spend their vacations, and those who don't know better accept it as genuine reform. "It sures seems like Raúl is changing things for the better," they say, "so why doesn't the U.S. end the embargo?"
On Monday, Castro did those of us who write about Cuba and testify for the cause of Cuban liberty an invaluable favor. The whole story — of what the Damas are demanding, and of Cuba for almost 50 years under tyranny — is on the faces of the women, both the Damas and the goons, captured in the attached photographs.
What more is there for us to say?
Except, thank you, Raúl, you piece of shit.
As the Castro goon squad demonstrated and the Damas de Blanco suffered Monday, nothing has changed under Raúl Castro. He is the same ruthless, bloodless, soulless bastard as his big brother, just not as slick.
And freedom in Cuba — for the brave men on whose behalf these women were protesting, and for all Cubans — remains absent.
UPDATED, April 22, 2008
The women detained were five Damas and five supporters. The Damas were identified as Laura Pollán, Berta Soler, Dolia Leal, Alejandrina García y Noelia Pedraza.
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