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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 27, 2008
FOR MORE INFORMATION: MAGDELIVIA HIDALGO
HAVANA, June 27, 2008. An activist couple, who recently participated in an act of civil disobedience at a Havana restaurant, were detained today following a mass State police operation that included a search of the couple’s home.
Lázaro Joaquín Alonso Román, executive director of the ex-prisoners of conscience Pedro Luis Boitel organization, was arrested in plain view upon leaving his mother’s home. His whereabouts are currently unknown. Following his arrest, the political police staged an operation outside of his home where they carried out a search of the property. His wife, Belinda Salas Tapanes, President of the Federation of Latin American Rural Women (FLAMUR), was arrested when she began calling foreign press reporters accredited in Havana, to come to her home to cover the story. The arrests were a result of an act of civil disobedience carried out by the couple and six other activists on June 24th when they entered restaurant Lava Dia in Havana, ate a meal and demanded to be able to pay in national currency as part of the campaign, “Con la Misma Moneda” or “With the Same Currency”. “Con la Misma Moneda” demands the right of all Cubans to pay in national currency, the Cuban peso, with which they are paid their salaries. “This is yet another example that whether Cuba is under a Fidel or Raul Castro regime, it continues to be a State where human rights are systematically violated. We demand the immediate release of these activists, and we ask that all international human rights organizations, parliamentarians of democratic nations, and all those who believe in human rights and civil liberties, to demand the Cuban authorities release them immediately,” said Magdelivia Hidalgo, International Representative of FLAMUR. “We will not be intimidated or paralyzed by repression,” Aini Martin Valero, independent journalist and member of FLAMUR stated. “The “Con la Misma Moneda” campaign will continue because we are not going to resign ourselves to being treated as second-class citizens in our own country,” Valero concluded. ###
Federación Latinoamericana de Mujeres Rurales