In its monthly report the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) denounced the "482 arbitrary arrests" of peaceful opponents and dissidents that took place in Cuba in the month of February.
The figure was slightly higher than those from the three preceding months: 359 arrests (November), 458 (December) and 478 (January).
"Our Commission also documented 16 cases of physical assaults and 18 cases of harassment perpetrated by undercover political police and paramilitary agents, with peaceful dissidents also their victims," added the report, to which DIARIO DE CUBA had access.
The document indicated that "the Ladies in White and the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) were the most repressed organizations: the former has been repeatedly subjected to harassment and other abuses, for 90 consecutive weekends, while 54 members of the UNPACU are political prisoners, most of them remaining imprisoned without formal charges, or awaiting trials."
The report also denounced the death in prison on February 24, at the Combinado del Este (Havana) of the "political prisoner Hamel Santiago Maz Hernández, a member of UNPACU, who had languished there since June 3, 2016; that is, more than 8 months without even receiving even the kind of kangaroo court that the Castro regime calls a "trial."
"There have been many cases of Cubans who have died in government custody, and all the moral and legal responsibility rests with the ruling elite," concludes the CCDHRN.