Posts Tagged ‘Dissidents’

More than 1,100 Cubans reported detained during papal visit

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Cuban police carried out 1,158 political detentions in March – mostly to keep dissidents away from Pope Benedict XVI – the most since the mass roundups during the Bay of Pigs invasion five decades ago, a human rights group reported Tuesday. The report by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana Read more

Cuba: New wave of repression

Friday, April 13th, 2012

Four days after Pope Benedict left Cuba, 43 dissidents have been detained in Cuba in a new wave of repression. Former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer and his wife, Belkis Cantillo, a member of the Women in White, were among those arrested. “We have been able to confirm that 43 dissidents have been detained – Read more

Benedict asks that Cuba recognise Good Friday as holiday

Friday, March 30th, 2012

At a 40 minute personal meeting between Cuban president Raul Castro and Pope Benedict, the Holy Father asked for Cuba to recognise Good Friday as a holiday. Noting that John Paul II asked a similar request of Fidel Castro about Christmas and it was restored as a national holiday, Vatican Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ said, Read more