More than a dozen Cuban dissidents were arrested Friday to block them from attending a forum on racial discrimination. Among those detained were Dr. Darsi Ferrer and his wife Yusnaimi Jorge Soca.
Cuban police detained more a dozen dissidents to force the cancellation of Friday’s session of a forum on racial discrimination on the island, according to forum organizers.
Dissidents also reported several dozen detentions earlier this week to avert street protests on Thursday, declared a nationwide “Day of Resistance.” Most of them had been freed by Thursday night.
Antonio Madrazo, national coordinator of the Citizens’ Committee for Racial Integration, said about 40 people attended Thursday’s opening session of the 2nd annual Forum on Race and Cubanness at his Havana apartment.
But police told him at 7 a.m. Friday that they would not allow any further sessions. Stationed outside his apartment, they began turning away people as they arrived, and arresting those who resisted, Madrazo added.
“Right now Rafael Campos is trying to get in. He’s at the door,” he told El Nuevo Herald by phone. Minutes later, he added, “Rafael Campos has been arrested. Police are taking him away.”
Madrazo said that among those detained were dissidents Manuel Cuesta Morua, Darsi Ferrer and Yusnaimi Jorge Soca, as well as Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto, a graffiti artist whose work often include political messages.
The only person allowed through the police lines Friday was Juan de Dios Mosquera, a black activist visiting from Colombia, Madrazo added.
The Citizens’ Committee was created in 2008 amid growing complaints that although the Cuban government has outlawed discrimination against its citizens of African descent, it has done little to eliminate actual racism.
The forum was first held last year “as a platform for communications to highlight the debate on the race issue, and also the culture of human rights,” Madrazo declared.
Cubaencuentro.com has the names of some of the other dissidents arrested.
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