Compatriots, lovers of freedom and democracy, peaceful fighters, human rights activists, members and leaders of political parties, independent librarians and trade unionists, women and mothers all,

From my position as Western [region of Cuba] Coordinator and member of the national executive board of Partido Cuba Independiente y Democrática [Independent and Democratic Cuba Party] (CID), I call on all Cuban women who identify themselves with the cause of the liberation of all political prisoners, to support the marches and other acts organized by the Ladies in White.

These women have valiantly come together since March of 2003 to the demand from the highest authorities of the Cuban government the immediate and unconditional release of all their relatives (sentenced to 20 years and more in rigged summary trials). To this end, they have exhausted numerous resources: letters to all established legislative institutions, to the highest government authorities including ex president Fidel Castro, the highest authorities of the Catholic Church in Cuba, to the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio, to Their Holiness popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, several heads of state that have visited the island. They have collected signatures, participated uninterruptedly in the Eucharistic Mystery at Santa Rita Catholic Church in Havana’s neighborhood of Miramar. They have conducted weekly Sunday marches on important thoroughfares of the city, with which the Cuban people has identify, carrying a gladiolus as their only weapon that has been given in many cases to the people who have spontaneously requested it. In return, they have received “acts of repudiation” and beatings by paramilitary mobs directed and organized by Security of State.

Today the government, the political police, and the Cardinal Archbishop of La Habana, His Most Reverend Excellency Monsignor ++Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, have requested the retreat of the support group to the Ladies in White, looking to weaken the marches and demands for the release of all prisoners of conscience. We reject this action, and support these Cuban women who defend their legitimate right of freedom for their love ones, as in her time it was understood and exercised by the mother of Fidel and Raúl Castro, back then dressed in all black.

Cuban woman, tomorrow can be too late. Our example lies in the premeditated and avoidable death of Prisoner of Conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Join in this demand for the freedom of all political prisoners which is also for Cuba.