Belinda Salas Tapanes
The Cuban police may have knocked on her door, but it is clear Belinda Salas Tapanes had the upper hand earlier this week during her arrest and brief detention.
In an interview posted at CubaNet, Salas, who is about 38 weeks pregnant, describes how secret police agents arrived at about 8 a.m. Tuesday to search her apartment. They left with several boxes of items, including literature, computer disks, a color printer and T-shirts promoting the Federation of Latin American Rural Women, a dissident group of which Salas is president.
And they left with Salas in their custody.
At the police station, interrogators barraged Salas with various question, all of which she refused to answer. Instead, she demanded, in writing, an explanation of the legal justification for the search and arrest.
None was given.
"So you didn't take me into custody legally," Salas said she told the goons, "you did so because you have the strength and power."
Her point is well taken, and accurate, but it is clear that it was Salas, who is about to give birth, who had the strength and power during this confrontation.
"Today with this arbitrariness, this government shows once again that
in Cuba there is no freedom, and that the government does not respect
human rights, nor even its own laws," she said.
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