Cuban Bloggers Detained, Assaulted by Security Forces
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The Spanish-language blog Belascoaín y Neptuno is reporting that on 6 November 2009, three bloggers in Havana, Cuba, were summarily detained, beaten and threatened by security forces. Yoani Sánchez, Claudia Cadelo and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and other unnamed individuals were allegedly forced into security agents’ vehicles, detained without charge, beaten and intimidated, in an apparent effort to crack down on political dissent.
The report suggests Raúl Castro’s pledge of “structural change” to the totalitarian Cuban system his brother ruled for 49 years may be yet to materialize. There have been mounting expectations Cuba’s system would be opened up, if a less hard-line leadership were brought in, and a pragmatist approach were adopted by the Obama administration in Washington. But Pres. Obama has been insistent that progress cannot be made if totalitarian abuses persist.
It remains unclear what exactly was the motivation for the arrests or whether the beatings are part of a planned sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against dissident voices seeking to influence the process of reform Raúl Castro had promised.
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