Thirty seven dissidents were arrested in Havana between Thursday and Friday as part of a raid from the Cuban political police to avoid the celebration of two important meetings, declared opposition leader Héctor Palacios.

On Thursday, the police tried to prevent the meeting of the Committee for the Transition and arrested 14 people; while on Friday there was a similar raid against the meeting for the annual assembly of the Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba (ULRC) [Liberal Unity of the Cuban Republic] that was to take place in the house of
opposition member Héctor Palacios. 23 dissidents were arrested.

Those arrested on Friday, the political police has taken them to different police stations throughout Havana, according to the Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional [Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation]. The whereabouts of some of the arrested is unknown.

The meeting of the ULRC took place with the attendance of 18 dissidents who managed to enter Palacios’ house before dawn.

Gisela Delgado, member of the Ladies in White, denounced the arrests of several dissidents in Holguín and Guantánamo, who were prevented from traveling to the capitol of the country.

The spokesperson for Guillermo Fariñas, Lisset Zamora, is still under arrest, along with other colleagues from the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, confirmed Palacios to DIARIO DE CUBA (Cuba Daily).

'Fariñas cannot wait five weeks'

Héctor Palacios, president of Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba told Diario de Cuba that Guillermo Fariñas, in hunger and thirst strike since 101 days, “cannot wait five weeks, because he will not be able to sustain it.”

“At the rate the negotiation between the Catholic Church and the government is going, I believe that Fariñas will die. We must raise our voices so that that doesn’t happen,” said Palacios.

Also, he confirmed that opposition member Félix Bonne, who attended the meetings on Thursday and Friday, reiterated his disposition to go on a hunger strike if Fariñas dies.

Unidad Liberal analized the situation of Fariñas’ health, the subject of political prisoners and the solidarity with the Ladies in White and Ladies in Support [of the Ladies in White]. About the latter the say that “solidarity cannot be limited” and encourage them to continue their peaceful walks.

This new repressive act comes in the middle of an uncertain negotiation between the regime and the Catholic Church to “improve” the conditions of the political prisoners.

(Source: Diario de Cuba).