The Ladies In White Face Persecution In Cuba

The Ladies in White is a group of Catholic women in Cuba who are peacefully resisting the Castro Regime. They are demanding justice for their imprisoned loved ones.  Laura Pollán founded the Ladies in White after the Black Spring to protest the regime’s unlawful detainment of their family members. In 2003, the Castro Regime arrested seventy-five journalists that reported the atrocities committed by the government. The Ladies in White are the daughters, wives, and mothers of people wrongfully imprisoned in Cuba.

The 13 De Marzo Incident

In July 2014 the Ladies in White assembled in Miramar, Havana, and began to march down to the coast. They marched toward the coast to leave flowers by the sea for the 37 people who died fleeing Cuba in the Tugboat Massacre. On July 13, 1994, agents of the Castro Regime intercepted the tugboat, 13 De Marzo, that was transporting Cubans who were trying to escape the oppressive regime. Castro’s Agents massacred all the men, women, and children on the 13 De Marzo. The youngest of the passengers on the 13 De Marzo was a 5-month-year-old baby named Helen Martínez Enríquez. In response to the Ladies in White commemorating the event, the Castro Regime arrested 130 of its members.

The Brutal Suppression of the Ladies in White

In 2016, prior to President Obama’s visit to Cuba, the Castro Regime arrested 50 more Ladies in White on charges of collaborating with the West to bring down the regime. It is no coincidence that the arrest of the Ladies in White happened prior to the visit of President Obama. The Castro Regime swept its dirty laundry under the rug before the president’s visit. President Obama decided to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba while ignoring the suffering of the Cuban people.

Last November, Raul Castro continued this brutal persecution of the Ladies in White by arresting another 38 members. The arrest of the Ladies in White was part of a 124-day sweep performed by the brutal dictator to silence dissent throughout Cuba. The Castro Regime is preventing them from attending Mass and other religious rites. At any moment, the Cuban Government can massacre the Ladies in White just like the passengers on the 13 De Marzo. The Cuban Government views them as traitors to the revolution and agents of the West. The Ladies in White are the latest in a long series of persecutions that the Castro Regime has undertaken in the name of Communism.