Political Repression Increase in Cuba Criticized by Opposition Group
A known opposition group in Cuba, the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, recently released its latest report on the increased political repression happening in the communist government.
In light of the recent actions by Washington and Havana diplomatic reconciliation, according to AFP, which freed five dissidents, the group urged that the government has sustained the political repression last 2015.
According to the report of the opposition group, which is known to be outlawed but tolerated in Cuba, they clarified that the five of the 53 listed prisoners, as part of the reestablishment of the Cuban-U.S. diplomatic relations, were freed but were previously "confined in high-security prisons in the second half of 2015."
The group also stressed that the five prisoners -- Wilfredo Parada Milian, Jorge Ramirez Calderon, Carlos Manuel Figueroa, Aracelio Ribeaux Noa and Vladimir Morera -- were jailed "as a result of rigged trials and without due process."
Furthermore, Morera was in a hunger strike for the past few months starting Oct. 9, 2015 and just started eating again on Dec. 31, 2015.
"All I know is that he is eating again, and that he is speaking incoherently because the doctors say he was very weak," Morera's son said as quoted by the news agency.
And while the Cuban government remains silent on the matter, the commission reports that in January 2015, there have been 178 cases of political arrests. Meanwhile, throughout the past year until December 2015, the commission reported 930 arrests for political reasons, which is considered the third highest number of the year, EFE reports.
The group further clarified that the repressive acts include "acts of vandalism and the extrajudicial confiscation of toys for distribution to poor children, plus the seizing of cash, computers, cell phones and other legally acquired work devices from detained opposition members."
The commission revealed that the country has encountered an increasing amount of "poverty and despair" because of such political repressive actions and that the people have been illegally migrating to other places away from Cuba to escape the troubled situation.
According to the news agency, the Cuban government has considered the commission as the most dissident since the U.S. funded mercenaries. The most current news from the dissident group revealed that "political repression" continued in 2015 "despite the well-known expectations awakened by the announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations" between Havana and Washington, AFP reports.
No further statements have been released from the Cuban government.
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