Message from
the Ladies in White to the XXXI Ordinary
Assembly of The Latin American Episcopal
Council
Eminences:
The Ladies in White are much honored to
welcome you to Havana, Cuba. At the same
time, we have great hopes to receive your
blessing, your prayers, and for your concern
to gain an understanding and contribute
to relieve the daily hardships faced by
our pacific prisoners of conscience and
political prisoners, the Cuban Catholics,
the followers of other religions and the
general population that for almost five
decades have seen no glimpse of change in
the immediate future.
Our prisoners of conscience do not have
the possibility to receive religious assistance
in the prisons; on very few occasions, it
is permitted. Since the Cuban government
does not recognize their status as prisoners
of conscience, they are mixed with common,
dangerous inmates. The government will not
fulfill the Minimum Standards for the Treatment
of Prisoners set by the United Nations,
nor will it authorize prestigious organizations,
such as the International Red Cross and
Amnesty International to have access to
the prisons. The prison conditions are deplorable
for all inmates, including the tens of thousands
common prisoners, mostly young black males.
Most of our loved ones have undergone an
alarming deterioration of their health during
their four years of incarceration, without
receiving adequate medical assistance.
Our families have been subjected to various
forms of psychological torture, with particular
suffering by our children and our elders
as they cannot visit our loved ones in prison
because they are hundreds of kilometers
away, in a country where means of transportation
are almost nonexistent. We, the Ladies in
White, are watched and repressed for being
the voices of these prisoners of conscience
and for demanding appropriate prison conditions
for them, but fundamentally for demanding
their immediate and unconditional freedom,
since they have committed no crime. These
men have only tried to exercise their right
to freedom of expression for the benefit
of our people.
Eminences, we place great hopes in the
intervention of the Holy Father Benedict
XVI before the Cuban authorities, as well
as the intercession of Your Eminences, for
the immediate and unconditional release
of the 75 prisoners of conscience incarcerated
in March 2003 and the rest of the Cuban
pacific political prisoners and, while this
does not occur, that they have religious
assistance, medical treatment and suitable
prison conditions.
We wish you to achieve your evangelization
objectives and to contribute to the advancement
of democracy and the respect of human rights
in Cuba.
DAMAS DE BLANCO
(Ladies in White)
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