Maria Elena Mir Marrero, general secretary of the independent labor organization CONIC.

Havana/Frankfurt am Main (23rd of November 2011) - The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) is increasingly worrying about the persecution of human rights activists, independent trade unionists and journalists by the Castro regime. The last weekend was marked by several arrests. Maria Elena Mir Marrero, general secretary of the independent labor organization CONIC was arrested in her house in Havana and wasn´t released until few hours later.

The dissident journalist Julio Cedeño Negrin and two other civil rights activists were also arrested in Havana. Moreover on the same day members of the prisoner relief association "Ladies in White" (Damas de Blaco) were arrested in the small town Contramaestre. The human rights activists  Mayelín La O Montero and Yaisel Figueredo Valdés and their husbands Alexander Aldana Batista and Julio César Vega were arrested in the city Contramaestre in the east of Cuba, in order to prevent them from participating at the mass in the place of pilgrimage El Cobre. But nevertheless, a group of the prisoner relief association got into the basilica. Alexander Aldana Batista and Julio César Vega were released shortly after that, but their wives are still at the police station of Contramaestre.

According to the ISHR, after the transfer of the leadership from Fidel Castro to his brother, general Raúl Castro, in the year 2006 barely anything has changed concerning the repressive actions against human and civil rights activists, who are standing up for a civil society in Cuba. Paramilitary militia, state security officers and strong-arm men are still acting violently against dissidents.

During protests on the street on the 14th of November 2011 in the city Contramaestre in the province Santiago de Cuba, the freedom and democracy movement UMPACU (Union Patriotica Cubana) chanted "long live human rights" and distributed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among the protesters was Jorge Cervantes, who was released from a prison camp in August 2011 after 14 years of jail which he served because of criticism on the regime. The protests were put down by the Cuban police, some participants were arrested temporarily.

Speaker of the Board of the ISHR, Martin Lessenthin, calls on the international society for solidarity with the human and civil rights activists who are fighting in Cuba for the implementation of basic rights and a democratic form of government. "It is depressing to see how the Castro regime acts with rigidity against civil rights activists and other dissidents", says Lessenthin. The autocrats of Cuba show that they are not willing to implement reforms. The EU-states should keep this in mind concerning their Cuba policy. "The systematic disrespect of human rights must have an end", adds Martin Lessenthin.



More informationen about the human rights situation in the republic of Cuba:
http://www.igfm.de/Kuba.456.0.html

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