• Submitted by: Camila
• Politics and Government
• 02 / 25 / 2015

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More than a hundred opponents were arrested this weekend in different provinces of Cuba, including well-known figures as Berta Soler, Guillermo Fariñas and Antonio Rodiles.

The arrests, which lasted several hours, began on Saturday night against members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and Citizens for Democracy (CXD), in Santiago de Cuba province, who planned to attend Mass in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, said in a statement UNPACU.

The organization that the total number of detainees in the province was 90 people, while the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported about 200 arbitrary arrests over the weekend.

Rodiles, Soler and her husband Angel Moya, and dozens of Damas de Blanco and other activists marched after Mass in the Church of Santa Rita in the capital were taken by bus to police stations, of which were released hours later.

The march was intended to honor the dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died in a Cuban prison on February 23, 2010 and the four pilots of Brothers to the Rescue, which killed a 24 February 1996 but, being pulled down their planes for military aircraft Cubans.

The arrests took place in Havana on Sunday after the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, announced in a press conference that he would submit to a referendum on his tenure as head of the organization, after Checkers White in exile demanded his resignation for his performance in hostile acts that were labeled "protest" against another member of that movement.

Source: El Nuevo Herald