Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer is detained by Cuban security personnel after a march protest in Havana.

Reuters/Havana


Cuban police detained about 50 people when a predominantly Roman Catholic dissident group led a march in Havana, less than a week before Pope Francis visits the communist-ruled country.
Such detentions have become common following regular marches by the Ladies in White, a group that has criticised the Roman Catholic Church and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega for failing to advocate on its behalf with the Cuban government.
Ladies in White leader Berta Soler said the women planned to attend services that Pope Francis will lead in Havana and Holguin while in Cuba from September 19-22. The Pope will also visit Santiago de Cuba.
“I would discuss with the Pope the need to stop police violence against those who exercise their freedom to demonstrate in public,” Soler said.
Cuba’s government considers the dissidents to be provocateurs who are financed by anti-communist groups in the US as part of an effort to destabilise the government in Havana.
In their weekly rally following at Havana’s Santa Rita Catholic Church, about 40 of the women, accompanied by about a dozen male supporters, marched outside their authorised route and down a side street where they were set upon by some 200 government supporters and police.
Female police pushed, pulled and carried the women onto buses as some sat down in an attempt to resist. The men were handcuffed and shoved into police cars and vans.
Similar incidents have occurred over the last few months, with those detained soon released. Dissidents have said about 100 people are typically detained each week across Cuba.
In August, Cuban police detained 768 dissidents of all stripes for political activity, the highest monthly total so far this year, according to the dissident Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation.