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.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS