Cuban police rounded up a group of young people wearing white rubber wristbands stenciled with the word cambio, or "change," and held them for hours before releasing them without filing charges, a human rights activist said on Thursday.
The detentions, which took place on Monday, went little-noticed on the island but sparked an outcry three days later in Washington, where top officials and critics of Cuba's communist government said at least 70 youths had been arrested.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said an unknown number of young people were wearing the bracelets when they were detained and taken to a police station in central Havana.
He said no formal charges were filed and that most of the group was released after a short time, but that a few may have been held until early on Tuesday. The youths, however, had to relinquish their bracelets, Sanchez said.
In Washington, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez on Thursday said that 70 Cubans were arrested. Gutierrez said that he himself wears the "change" wristband to support Cubans who want democracy.
"Their unjustified detainment is exactly why Cuba needs change now," Gutierrez, a Cuban-American and co-chair of the White House Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, said in a statement.
Sanchez said he "could not confirm or deny" reports that 70 people were arrested. The Cuban government, which tolerates Sanchez's commission and other dissident organizations but dismisses them as "mercenary" groups of the US, has not commented.
Government critics began wearing "change" bracelets several years ago, Sanchez said, but the movement seems to have gained little traction among the general population in Cuba.
US Senator Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican, condemned the detentions on the floor of the Senate on Thursday.
"It is unconscionable," said Martinez, who was joined on the floor by Senators Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, Texas Republican John Cornyn and New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez.
In his first major address focused only on Cuba in four years, US President George W. Bush last week urged Cubans to "shape your own destiny" by ridding themselves of the communist government.
The Cuban government rejected this as tantamount to a call to take the island by force.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS