Tuesday 19 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
CUBA:
Founder of Women in
White Drops Out
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) -
Miriam Leiva, one of the
founders of the Cuban
movement Women in White,
announced Monday that
she was leaving the
group of wives, mothers
and sisters of
imprisoned dissidents to
dedicate herself to
"independent
journalism."
In a short statement
distributed to several
foreign media outlets,
Leiva did not explain
her decision, and it was
not possible to locate
her at her home to
obtain further details.
The activist is the wife
of Oscar Espinoza Chepe,
one of 75 dissidents
sentenced to lengthy
terms in 2003, who was
later released on parole
for medical reasons.
Saying that she wanted
to spend more time
writing, Leiva added
that although she would
no longer be "committed"
to the decisions and
statements of the Women
in White, she would
continue to "proudly"
consider herself one of
the group’s founders.
In a telephone
conversation with IPS,
Laura Pollán, one of the
group’s spokeswomen,
said she was already
aware of Leiva’s
decision. "We will feel
her absence, because she
is a very competent,
knowledgeable person,
but we respect her
choice," she said.
Pollán also said Leiva’s
decision would not
affect the unity of the
group. "There have been
no clashes or
disagreements among us,
I want to make that
clear," said the
activist, who is married
to Héctor Maseda, a
dissident sentenced to
20 years in prison in
the summary trials in
2003.
Leiva clarified that she
would remain committed
to the struggle for the
"immediate release" of
the rest of the 75
dissidents who were
convicted of conspiring
with the United States
to undermine the Cuban
government. Of the
original group, 55
remain in prison.
According to Leiva, nine
of the 20 who were
paroled "for health
reasons, and who remain
in Cuba, can be sent
back to prison at any
moment." The rest of the
prisoners who were
released are living
abroad, with the
exception of Miguel
Valdés Tamayo, who died
of a heart attack in
January 2007.
"We will also continue
the struggle. As long as
there are political
prisoners, there will be
Women in White," said
Pollán, whose home in
Havana serves as a
frequent meeting-place
for the female relatives
of the imprisoned
dissidents.
Dressed in white, the
women attend mass every
Sunday at the Santa Rita
church, named after the
patron saint of lost
causes, and then march
several blocks along
Quinta Avenida, on the
west side of the
capital, demanding the
release of their
husbands, fathers and
brothers.
Last April, Pollán and
nine other Women in
White staging a sit-in
near the famous Plaza de
la Revolución -- where
government ministries
and many other important
buildings are located --
to demand a face-to-face
meeting with the
authorities were
forcibly removed by
female police officers.
According to Granma, the
ruling Communist Party
daily newspaper, the
removal of the
protesters was aimed at
averting a confrontation
with the public. In the
past, the Women in White
have been shouted at on
the streets by angry
government supporters.
In the Granma article
published on that
occasion, the protesters
were described as
"mercenary elements" who
were staging "an
insolent provocation" on
the edge of the Plaza de
la Revolución. The paper
also linked the women to
sectors of the
right-wing Cuban exile
community in the United
States.
A month later, the Women
in White found
themselves implicated in
a case in which the
government demanded that
the United States
provide explanations for
what it described as
"obscure ties" between
U.S. diplomatic
personnel in Havana,
"terrorist" groups in
Miami and members of
dissident organisations.
Three programmes were
aired by Cuban
television -- which is a
state monopoly -- in
mid-May exhibiting the
results of an
investigation that
allegedly showed that
diplomats at the U.S.
Interests Section
ferried money from
abroad to dissident
groups in Cuba,
including the Women in
White.
Pollán was one of the
people who had signed a
receipt for funds from
the United States. She
said at the time that
she did not know where
the money came from.
But authorities in Cuba
said they had evidence
that the funds, brought
in via diplomatic pouch
by Interest Section
officials, came from the
Legal Rescue Foundation,
an organisation based in
Miami, Florida and
headed by Cuban-American
citizen Santiago Álvarez.
Álvarez, who is in
prison in the United
States for weapons
possession and other
offences, is a long-time
anti-Castro activist
with a record of violent
action against Cuba.
Pollán told the press at
the time that the money,
to be distributed among
18 women in her
movement, was given to
them by Martha Beatriz
Roque, a dissident with
radical views who heads
the Assembly for the
Promotion of Civil
Society.
On that occasion, she
told IPS that "at no
time" did the Women in
White know that the
funds "had anything to
do with Santiago Álvarez."
"Martha Beatriz brought
it to us, and it was
humanitarian aid from
the Legal Rescue
Foundation," she said.
"We didn’t know that
Álvarez was the main
benefactor," said Pollán. |
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