A Cuban crackdown on dissident activists caused a new rift with the US on Wednesday, the first diplomatic scuffle since this month’s historic announcement of a renewal in ties.
Authorities arrested 51 dissidents on Tuesday to stop them from attending an open mic session convened for Cubans to speak out about their future, said Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the officially banned Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Committee.
Most were later released, although about 10 to 12 were still being held into the evening, Sanchez said.
The crackdown is the first since US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced two weeks ago that the two countries would revive diplomatic relations severed during the Cold War and move to ease the five-decade US trade embargo.
In a stern reaction, Washington condemned Havana’s “lack of respect” for human rights.
“We are deeply concerned about the latest reports of detentions and arrests by Cuban authorities of peaceful civil society members and activists,” the US Department of State said in a statement. “We strongly condemn the Cuban government’s continued harassment and repeated use of arbitrary detention, at times with violence, to silence critics, disrupt peaceful assembly and freedom [of] expression, and intimidate citizens.”
The arrests came after Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera invited her compatriots to share their dreams for the island’s future at a “participatory performance” in Revolution Square, an iconic plaza in front of Cuba’s government headquarters.
Bruguera was among those released by the end of Wednesday, after being held twice during the day, including when she tried to go to Havana’s main seaside avenue, the Malecon, to hold a press conference with other activists.
A correspondent said that just as she arrived, two plainclothes police officers stopped her, spoke briefly with her and then bundled her off in their car.
“They’re taking me away,” she said before entering the car.
Prominent dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez was also briefly placed under house arrest on Tuesday, while her husband and editor, Reinaldo Escobar, was held for several hours at the same jail as Bruguera, reported their website, 14ymedio.
Cuban authorities have not confirmed any of the arrests. State media outlets have so far not reported on the subject.
Bruguera, 46, is known for her politically provocative work. She trained in Cuba and the US and splits her time between those countries and France.
In 2009, she held a similar event at the Havana Biennial Art Exhibition, offering museum-goers an open mic to express their views of the Castro government.
About 20 activists and numerous foreign correspondents turned up for Tuesday’s open mic event, but Bruguera never arrived.
Her cell phone was out of service and her apartment guarded by police, who refused to allow anyone through, reporters said.
The State Department said the US would “continue to press the Cuban government to uphold its international obligations and to respect the rights of Cubans to peacefully assemble and express their ideas and opinions” as part of the process to restore ties.
The crackdown will likely fuel criticism of the US-Cuban rapprochement from those who oppose it in the Cuban exile community and in the US Congress.
Obama wants Congressional cooperation in lifting the 54-year-old embargo.
However, several lawmakers, led by Senator Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American, have dismissed the change in Cuba policy as appeasing a dictator.
The first high-level meeting on restoring ties is scheduled for late this month in Havana. US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson has confirmed she will attend.
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS