Ladies in White

{{further|Black Spring (Cuba)}}

During the Black Spring in 2003, the Cuban government arrested and summarily tried and sentenced 75 human rights activists, independent journalists, and independent librarians to terms of up to 28 years in prison,{{cite web|url=http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_cuba/hrd_cuba_blanco.htm |title=Cuba's "Ladies in White" |publisher=Human Rights First |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709080407/http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_cuba/hrd_cuba_blanco.htm |archivedate=2009-07-09 }} for receiving American government funds and collaborating with U.S diplomats.{{cite web|url=http://www.granma.cu/INGLES/mayo03/jue8/statement-code-i.html |title=On Recent Events In Cuba |publisher=Granma |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226203540/http://www.granma.cu/INGLES/mayo03/jue8/statement-code-i.html |archivedate=February 26, 2008}}

For its part, the Cuban government accused the 75 individuals of "acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state", including belonging to "illegal organizations", accepting money from the United States Interests Section in Havana and of "hijacking", "terrorist activities", and collaborating with foreign media.[http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm Rule of Law and Cuba] from Florida State University {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209142742/http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm |date=9 February 2006 }} In the view of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Black Spring violated the most basic norms of international law, including Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of their choice."{{cite web|url=http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|title=Cuba's Long Black Spring|author1=Carlos Lauria |author2=Monica Campbell |author3=María Salazar |publisher=The Committee To Protect Journalists|date=18 March 2008}}

Under the leadership of Laura Pollán,{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8848937/Laura-Pollan.html|title=Obituaries: Laura Pollán|date=25 October 2011|work=The Daily Telegraph|accessdate=20 March 2012}} the Ladies in White group was formed two weeks after the arrests.[http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm Rule of Law and Cuba] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209142742/http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm |date=February 9, 2006 }} Relatives of the prisoners began gathering on Sundays at St. Rita's Church in Havana to pray for their relatives. After each Mass, they began a ritual procession from the church to a nearby park. The white clothing they wear is reminiscent of the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who used a similar strategy to demand information about their missing children from the 1970s military junta. Each marcher wears a button with a photo of her imprisoned relative and the number of years to which he has been sentenced.

The Cuban government has criticized the Ladies in White for being a subversive association of American-backed terrorists.{{in lang|fr}} [http://vdedaj.club.fr/cuba/npa_lamrani_hebe.html Cuba Solidarity Project. Entrevue avec Hebe de Bonafini] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626064039/http://vdedaj.club.fr/cuba/npa_lamrani_hebe.html |date=June 26, 2008 }} On Palm Sunday in 2005, the pro-government Federation of Cuban Women sent 150 women to counter-protest the group.

At times, rather large mobs have attacked these Ladies in White, yelling insults and slurs at them, and assisting the police to throw them into imprisonment buses.{{cite journal|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2008/0422/p01s07-woam.html|title=Cuba arrests Ladies in White|journal=Christian Science Monitor|date=22 April 2008}} However, following the 2010 intervention of Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino on their behalf, they were generally allowed to protest outside of his church.

In 2005, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was awarded jointly to Reporters without Borders, Nigerian human rights lawyer Huawa Ibrahim, and the Ladies in White. Five of the leaders of the movement were selected to receive the prize: Laura Pollán, whose husband Hector Maseda is serving a 20-year sentence; Miriam Leiva, whose husband Oscar Espinosa Chepe has been conditionally released due to a serious illness; Berta Soler, whose husband Angel Moya Acosta is serving 20 years; Loida Valdes, whose husband Alfredo Felipe Fuentes was sentenced to 26 years; and Julia Núñez, whose husband Adolfo Fernández Saínz is serving 15 years. Some of the women were prevented from visiting their husbands to tell them of the award, but Laura Pollán told the Wall Street Journal that those who were told "are very happy and very proud".{{cite news|title=Ladies in White|author=Mary Anastasia O'Grady|date=17 December 2005|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal}}

The Cuban government barred the group's leaders from attending the Sakharov Prize award ceremony in Strasbourg, Alsace, Grand Est, France, drawing an appeal on the group's behalf from the European Parliament.{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1214/cuba.html|title=Cuban group not allowed collect award|date=14 December 2005|publisher=RTÉ News|accessdate=20 March 2012}}

Berta Soler received the award on the organization's behalf on her first-ever trip abroad in 2013. She was allowed to leave due to Cuba easing its travel regulations.{{cite web|last=Tamayo|first=Juan|title=Dissidents Say They are Returning to Cuba Reenergized|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3454855/dissidents-say-they-are-returning.html|work=The Miami Herald|accessdate=June 20, 2013}}

The Cuban government alleges that the Ladies in White were created and financially sustained by the U.S. government as a means of destabilizing Cuba.{{cite web|last=Bayard de Volo|first=Lorraine|title=Heroines With Friends in High Places: Cuba's Damas de Blanco|url=https://nacla.org/article/heroines-friends-high-places-cuba’s-damas-de-blanco|work=NACLA|accessdate=March 21, 2016}} Although it is unclear if the United States had a role in creating the organization, leaked classified diplomatic cables show that the U.S. Interests Section requested funding for the Ladies in White and that working with the group figures prominently in the section’s activities.

At a protest in Havana on November 30, 2010, group member Ivonne Malleza Galano was arrested along with her husband Ignacio Martínez Montejo. She and her husband were holding a banner reading "Stop hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba" in Havana's Fraternity Park. Two police officers confiscated the banner, handcuffed her and Martínez, and put them into a police vehicle as a surrounding crowd demanded their release.{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/006/2011/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122071508/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/006/2011/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 November 2018|title=Cuban Activist in Incommunicado Detention|date=9 December 2011|publisher=Amnesty International|accessdate=21 January 2012}} When onlooker and fellow protester Isabel Haydee Alvarez Mosqueda objected to their arrest, she was detained as well.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/10052095 |title=Amnesty was set to recognize late Cuba dissident|author=Peter Orsi|date=20 January 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|accessdate=21 January 2012}} Malleza and Alvarez were both transferred to Havana's Manto Negro women’s jail. The three prisoners were held without charge, though their relatives were told the three were being investigated for "public disorder".

The three arrests were denounced by numerous human rights groups, including the Havana-based Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which described the three prisoners as "three people who simply staged a small peaceful protest on the streets without any kind of force or violence".{{cite news |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/27/2563791/jailing-of-cuban-dissidents-denounced.html|title=Jailing of Cuban dissidents denounced|date=27 December 2011|newspaper=The Miami Herald|accessdate=21 January 2012}} Amnesty International named the three prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate and unconditional release.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/cuba-govt-opponent-says-jailed-dissident-dead-after-hunger-strike-to-protest-4-year-sentence/2012/01/19/gIQAbK3VCQ_story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121162054/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/cuba-govt-opponent-says-jailed-dissident-dead-after-hunger-strike-to-protest-4-year-sentence/2012/01/19/gIQAbK3VCQ_story.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2012|title=Amnesty says Cuba dissident who died on hunger strike a prisoner of conscience, names 3 others|agency=Associated Press|date=20 January 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|accessdate=21 January 2012}} The Irish-based organization Front Line called for their release on 15 December 2011.{{cite web|url=http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/16913 |title=Cuba: Actualización: Ivonne Malleza Galano e Ignacio Martínez Montejo reanudan la huega de hambre |language=Spanish |date=15 December 2011 |publisher=Front Line |accessdate=21 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121207123500/http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/16913 |archivedate= 7 December 2012 }} On 13 January 2012, US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Díaz-Balart, Albio Sires, and David Rivera issued a bipartisan statement urging the prisoners' release, calling their detention "appalling and unjust".{{cite web|url=http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=2163 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20120202084744/http%3A//foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id%3D2163 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 February 2012 |title=Ros-Lehtinen, Congressional Colleagues Demand Release of Cuban Pro-Democracy Leaders; Calls Arbitrary Detentions Appalling and Unjust |author=Ileana Ros-Lehtinen |date=13 January 2012 |publisher=United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs |accessdate=21 January 2012 }} US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez also issued a statement calling for their release and condemning the "unrelenting tyranny" of "the Castro brothers".{{cite web|url=http://interamericansecuritywatch.com/sens-menendez-and-rubio-call-for-release-of-ivonne-melleza-galano/ |title=Sens. Menendez and Rubio Call for Release of Ivonne Melleza Galano |date=11 January 2012 |publisher=InterAmerican Security Watch |accessdate=21 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412194609/http://interamericansecuritywatch.com/sens-menendez-and-rubio-call-for-release-of-ivonne-melleza-galano/ |archivedate=12 April 2012 }}

Malleza, Martínez, and Alvarez were released on 20 January after 52 days in prison; the release came only a few hours after Amnesty International's announcement of their "prisoner of conscience" designation. The organization reported that authorities told the three that they would face "harsh sentences" if they continued their anti-government activities.{{cite news|url=http://cuba-l.unm.edu/?nid=107049|title=Amnesty Int'l says 3 Cubans named prisoners of conscience were released from jail within hours|date=23 January 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|accessdate=23 January 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120707134004/http://cuba-l.unm.edu/?nid=107049|archivedate=7 July 2012}}

The Ladies in White also participated in a vigil for imprisoned dissident Wilmar Villar Mendoza, who later died while on hunger strike.

Roughly seventy members of the Ladies in White were detained on the weekend of 16–17 March 2012, including Berta Soler, the group's current leader. Many of them were arrested on their way to or from mass, which they customarily attend together before their Sunday protest march. All seventy were released without charges on 19 March.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17436377|title=Cuba's Ladies in White released after weekend arrest|date=19 March 2012|work=BBC News|accessdate=20 March 2012}} However, they were instructed by Cuba's secret police that they would no longer be allowed to protest.{{cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/19/2702661/cubas-ladies-in-white-warned-public.html |title=Cuba's Ladies in White warned public protests no longer allowed |date=19 March 2012 |work=Miami Herald |accessdate=20 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326010847/http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/19/2702661/cubas-ladies-in-white-warned-public.html |archivedate=March 26, 2012 }}

A reporter for BBC News stated that protest groups like the Ladies in White were seeking to raise their profile in advance of an impending visit by Pope Benedict XVI—who was expected to discuss the issue of human rights with the Cuban government—and that the Cuban Communist Party was accordingly seeking to clamp down on protest.

On 21 March, Amnesty International designated imprisoned Ladies in White member Yasmin Conyedo Riveron and her husband Yusmani Rafael Alvarez Esmori as prisoners of conscience. The two had been arrested in January and charged with "violence against a state official" following an argument with a local Communist Party official.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/10156683|title=Amnesty denounces detentions of Cuba opposition|date=21 March 2012|author=Paul Haven|agency=Associated Press|work=The Guardian|accessdate=1 July 2012}} The pair were released on bail on 5 April.{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/014/2012/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122071521/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/014/2012/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 November 2018|title=Prisoners of Conscience Released on Bail|date=11 April 2012|publisher=Amnesty International|accessdate=1 July 2012}}

On 9 December, police in Cuba arrested approximately 80 Ladies in White, allegedly using violence in detaining some of them.{{cite news|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/3136204/cuba-cracks-down-on-dissidents.html |title=Cuba cracks down on dissidents on Rights Day |date=11 December 2012 |newspaper=Miami Herald |accessdate=16 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130226181006/http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/3136204/cuba-cracks-down-on-dissidents.html |archivedate=February 26, 2013 }} In all, 100 to 150 dissidents were placed under house arrest.

In February 2015, 53 members of Ladies in White were arrested after a march through Havana after a mass.{{cite news |author= |agency=Associated Press |title=Dissidents Say as Many as 200 Arrested in Cuba |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dissidents-200-arrested-cuba-29170523 |newspaper=ABC News |date=23 February 2015 |access-date=23 February 2015 }}

Hours before the historic visit of President Barack Obama to Cuba on 19 March, Cuban authorities arrested more than 50 members of Ladies in White during their weekly march. Some members believed Cuban authorities would allow them to protest without getting arrested due to the presence of international reporters and a foreign head of state.

Soler offered the following thoughts prior to being arrested: "For us, it's very important that we do this so President Obama knows that there are women here fighting for the liberty of political prisoners. And he needs to know that we are here being repressed simply for exercising our right to express ourselves and manifest in a non-violent way."{{cite news |author=Alan Gomez|title=Cuba arrests dozens of human rights protesters before Obama's arrival |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/20/cuba-dissidents-protesters-arrested-president-obama-visit/82048950/ |newspaper=USA Today |date=20 March 2016}}

• Censorship in Cuba
• Cuban dissident movement
• Human rights in Cuba
• Mothers Against Repression
• Mothers of Khavaran
• Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
• Mourning Mothers
• Saturday Mothers
• Tiananmen Mothers

{{reflist|2|refs =

{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/cuban-authorities-responsible-activists-death-hunger-strike-2012-01-20|title=Cuban authorities 'responsible' for activist's death on hunger strike|date=20 January 2012|work=Amnesty International|accessdate=11 May 2012}}

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{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.damasdeblanco.org/ Asociación Damas de Blanco] (Ladies in White Official Association, in Spanish)
• [http://www.damasdeblanco.com/ Damas de Blanco] (Ladies in White in Spanish)
• [http://damasdeblanco.impela.net/ Damas de Blanco News - Noticias] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311180741/http://damasdeblanco.impela.net/ |date=2012-03-11 }} News about Ladies in White in English and Spanish (with online translation)
• [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20051017FCS01528+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN#title3 Ladies, Ibrahim and Reporters joint Sakharov prize winners ] European Parliament
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060104124555/http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=13216 Reporters without Frontiers] - Cuba Annual report, 2005.
• [http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm Sentencing documents] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209142742/http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents.cfm |date=9 February 2006 }} - From dissidents' trials.
• [http://damasdeblanco.impela.net/ Thousands of articles about the Ladies in White] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311180741/http://damasdeblanco.impela.net/ |date=2012-03-11 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130309084231/http://humanrightsfoundation.org/HRF-Ladies-in-White-after-death-of-Laura-Pollan-14-10-2012.php Human Rights Foundation article]

{{Sakharov Prize 2001-2025}}

Category:Human rights organizations based in Cuba

Category:Opposition to Fidel Castro

Category:Women's organizations based in Cuba

Category:Politics of Cuba

Category:Civil disobedience

Category:2003 establishments in Cuba

Category:Sakharov Prize laureates