Third Phase of the Campaign "With the Same Currency" carries out acts of civil disobedience in Havana
Havana, June 25, 2008
Activists from various organizations engaged in acts of civil disobedience in Havana to begin the third phase of the campaign "With the Same Currency."
The event took place at the restaurant "Lava Dia" located in Malecón between Bell and Manrique, Centro Habana municipality. Four pairs of activists entered the site, ordered food and refused to pay in convertible pesos, demanding their right to pay in the national currency, the Cuban peso.
The management of the site called the police and they were arrested. Joaquin Lázaro Alonso Román, Montana Alfredo Ramos, Yoriet Cabrera and Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez, were taken to a nearby police station, where they were warned that they would not be released until they do not pay the amount consumed in the convertible currency. The activists refused, and were finally released at 1:00 am on Wednesday, June 25, without having complied with the requirements of the police.
At the time of writing this note it is unknown the status of Iglesias and Julio Beltran, another activist who had refused to hand over the video camera on which he took pictures and threw into the sea before surrendering to police. At 2 pm Juan del Pilar Joern was also arrested according to human rights observers, who monitored the details of the event. Pilar Joen was taken to the police unit of Zanja, where he was interrogated, strip searched and detained for four hours.
With these actions of civil disobedience we begin the third phase of the campaign with the same currency, said a communique issued from the Cuban capital for the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR).
We have decided to claim the true form of national sovereignty, which comes to the right of every Cuban to take control of their own lives without interference or any government handouts. Inspired by the example of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Lech Walesa and others who refused to obey unjust laws to fight for the rights of their people are saying NO to apartheid economic suffering in our own land for our Cubans
"These activists have not committed any crime. They were simply demanding the right to pay in the currency in which wages are paid in Cuba. It is the government who is in lawlessness since the November 21, 2007." FLAMUR delivered 10,738 signatures to the National Assembly in support of the campaign "With the Same Currency". Today we have a sign that we are organized, determined and committed to the end with our cause "said Magdelivia Hidalgo, International FLAMUR Representative.