JG: Below is an AP Photo. I was not there, so I do not know what happened. Up to this point The Ladies in White have conducted their march on Sundays near Saint Rita, a church on Fifth Avenue in the Miramar district. Their marches were peaceful and no one impeded them.
It appears to me, from what I can see in the photograph, that there are five Ladies in White in the foreground, and maybe three or four more in the background.
This time they were not doing what they usually do in a peaceful manner. The AP report fails to mention where they were conducting their protest this time, other than saying it was in a “trafficked neighborhood.” Were they trying to provoke a violent reaction on the part of the population that supports the Cuban government?
If the the Ladies in White want to shout Freedom! the Cubans that do not agree with their message have the same right to shout Long Live Fidel! Freedom of expression is a two-way street.
It appears to me that this time the Ladies in White engaged in provocative behavior. When passions are inflamed and people start shouting slogans, things can get out of hand very quickly.
The Cuban government has claimed that the opposition inside the island has always been directed and financed by the United States government. On one occasion one of the so-called dissidents by the name of Martha Beatriz Roque expressed that she would like to see an invasion of Cuba by U.S. Marines. Martha, we all know who you are working for, and it is definitely not the Cuban people. If you say that in any neighborhood in Cuba, you are lucky if you get out of that neighborhood alive.
The U.S. government has no right to stick their nose into the internal affairs of the Cuban people. The inhabitants of that island have chosen a different system, which is their sovereign right, because of all the exploitation and corruption in Cuba before January 1, 1959.
Cubans may make mistakes, but at least now Cubans rule the island.
AP: Cuban government supporters, above, chant pro-revolutionary slogans as a group of political prisoners' wives known as Ladies in White, left, that were marching in protest try to get away in Havana.
March 20, 2007, 7:00PM, The Houston Chronicle
Cuba supporters break up prison protest
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ Associated Press Writer
2007 The Associated Press
HAVANA — Government supporters broke up a public protest Tuesday by prisoners' wives who intermittently shouted "Freedom! Freedom!" as they marched through a neighborhood in the capital to mark the crackdown that put their loved ones behind bars.
More than 40 government supporters shouted down the smaller "Ladies in White" group with cries of "Long Live Fidel!" in a reference to ailing leader Fidel Castro. There were no physical confrontations between the two groups, and it was not immediately known if there were any arrests.
"We are people who have to defend our revolution, our streets," said government supporter Esperanza Gomez, explaining the counter-demonstration.
Complete Article
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