Arrests Reported in Cuba to Block Protest over Police Killing of Black Man
HAVANA TIMES – Cuban activists and independent journalists on Tuesday accused police of preventing them from attending a protest against the killing of a black man by security forces, reported dpa news.
Dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer and the artists Tania Bruguera and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara were arrested upon leaving their homes, their families and friends told dpa.
Journalist Monica Baro said on Facebook that two police officers were watching her home. Her colleague Abraham Jimenez Enoa said on Twitter that he had been placed under house arrest to prevent him from reporting on the protest.
Opposition activists had called a rally in central Havana to protest the death of 27-year-old Hansel Ernesto Hernandez who was suspected of theft and shot dead by police last week.
The government said police acted in self-defence after Hernandez stoned them.
But the opposition has questioned that version and says there is racist police abuse in the Caribbean country.
Is anyone really surprised about this? Why should Cuba be immune to police brutality? Indeed, Afro-Cubans have always been victims of police abuse in Cuba. The only difference today from times past is that victims of abuse and their supporters have far greater access to the means to report that abuse in extraofficial media. Namely the Internet. The Castro regime has survived more than 60 years largely due to their capacity to control the flow of information to and from Cuba. That control has been eroded significantly by technology. As a result, the curtain has been pulled back. This death at the hands of the PNR is nothing new.
I can attest to the State Police (MININT goons) in Cuba being racist – its nothing new.