20 Cuban Ladies In White arrested in Havana

marcmasferrer

Cuban Ladies In White march Sunday in Havana. (Photo by Angel Juan Moya via ICLEP.org)

Twenty members of the Cuban Ladies In White and other opposition activists were arrested Sunday after they threw photographs of Cuban political prisoners out a bus they were riding. Among those arrested was Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies In White, or Damas De Blanco.

After Sunday Mass, the activists hopped on a bus and as it approached the famed Coppelia ice cream stand, they began throwing the photographs out the windows.

They were then taken off the bus and arrested. Their whereabouts early Sunday evening were not known, but there was at least one report that some of those arrested had been released.

Earlier in the day, 63 Damas had attended Mass, then as always they marched down Fifth Avenue.

Today's demonstration marked the 12th anniversary of the group's founding by the late Laura Pollan and other female relatives of journalists, librarians and other activists arrested during the "black spring" crackdown of 2003.