Cuba’s Ladies in White

Most Americans don’t have the faintest idea of what it’s like to live in a society where there’s no freedom. And most Americans can’t imagine being taken from their beds in the middle of the night for no reason, or imprisoned for speaking their mind or expressing ideas.

We’re protected in the United States by the First Amendment of our Constitution which grants us the freedom to say what we want to say, without fear of reprisal from our government or our fellow citizens

Not so in Cuba-to do so results in arrest.

When arrested in Cuba for speaking openly, violators are subjected to government run court trials, where predetermined sentences, ranging from months to years are handed down before the defendant can even set foot in a courtroom.

Cuba’s Ladies in White are the wives, daughters and sisters of the unjustly imprisoned — who join with other families suffering the same fate to walk peacefully through the streets of their barrios, wearing white and carrying flowers in a peaceful call to the world in an attempt to draw attention to the violation of their family member's freedom of speech.

Along the route, they are closely monitored by Cuban government agents-gusanos-who at minimum, report back to their handlers in hopes keeping their family spared from the same scrutiny.

To impede these peaceful protests, the Cuban government activates its “Rapid Response Brigades”, who hurl insults and racial slurs as the women walk; and in many cases these Brigades physically attack the women.

These armed government thugs, beat and then drag the women to waiting government vehicles before hauling them away to secret locations where they are undoubtedly subjected to more physical and psychological abuse at the hands of henchmen loyal to the Castros and their Revolution.

Cuba may only be 90 miles away from Key West, but it may as well be a million miles away in its application of human rights. In Castro’s Cuba, citizens have been, and continue to be, stripped of their rights to freedom of expression; and as freedom-loving Americans, we can’t afford to turn a blind eye, lest we suffer the same.

We have a moral obligation to raise awareness about the violations of freedom in the world, especially those that have taken place in Cuba during the Castros reign of repression-and we must offer our unwavering support to The Ladies in White in their continued peaceful efforts to bring freedom to Cuba.