To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Thirteen years after her suspicious death, the legacy of Laura Pollán continues to pose a challenge to the Castro dictatorship.
They can either kill us, put us in jail or release them. We will never stop marching no matter what happens." - Laura Inés Pollán Toledo (2010)
On the eve, and day of the Laura Inés Pollán Toledo death anniversary the secret police have been active in targeting and repressing the Ladies in White, a Cuban civic movement that seeks the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners.
On Sunday, October 13, 2024, Angel Moya Acosta at 2:40 p.m. reported that paramilitaries of the Cuban communist regime arrested Berta Soler Fernàndez as she exited the Ladies in White headquarters and transported her to an unknown location.
Today at 8:47 a.m., Angel Moya reported that his wife, Berta Soler Fernàndez, leader of the Ladies in White NGO, was freed by state security officials at 8:30 a.m., following 16 hours of incarceration and disappearance. Berta was imprisoned in a semi-obscure cell at the Cotorro police station, without access to a Bible or water. Her "sleep" was cut short at 2 a.m. today, and she was taken to the police station of Aguilera, where she was released at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, the 14th.
Berta Soler Fernàndez wrote today on Facebook: "On October 14, 2013, Fidel and Raul Castro ordered the murder of our leader, Laura Pollan. The Ladies in White pay tribute to and honor our beloved Laura."
Berta Soler Fernàndez surrounded and taken by plain clothes agents on October 13, 2024
Who was Laura Pollán? Why did the Castro regime fear this woman so much that nine years later they must surround a neighborhood to prevent Cubans from peacefully gathering to remember her? Cuban human rights defender Janisset Rivero, in an article published in 2022in Marti Noticias, provides part of the answer: "Laura had a sweet voice and an accent from the east of the country; she had been a teacher of literature, and I suspect that her literary knowledge made her identify with the beauty of the cause of freedom in Cuba. Her husband, dedicated to political opposition work, put her at a crossroads, like many other relatives of political prisoners in Cuba at the beginning of the millennium. Laura took up the challenge [in 2003] and believed in her mission. She raised up love against hatred, peace against terror. She did it without losing her sweetness, but with a poise and common sense that earned her leadership among the other women."
This is why the dictatorship fears her, and we remember and honor her memory.
The proof of a great leader is measured by who follows them in leadership. Berta Soler, a former hospital technician with training in microbiology, has continued the freedom struggle and 13 years later continues to push for freedom.
The Cuban dictatorship did all it could to crush the Ladies in White, including physical violence, but Laura, and the other Ladies in White, answered with non-violent and strategic resistance achieving greater visibility both internationally and nationally.
Following brutal repression, in an effort to prevent them from marching through the streets of Havana, Laura Pollán directly and nonviolently challenged the regime declaring, "we will never give up our protest. The authorities have three options — free our husbands, imprison us or kill us."
Four Ladies in White are currently serving long and unjust prison sentences for defending human rights. They are Tania Echevarría, Saylí Navarro, Sissi Abascal, and Aymara Nieto.
Imprisoned Ladies in White from Left to Right: Tania Echevarría, Saylí Navarro, Sissi Abascal, and Aymara Nieto.
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