{"id":31979,"date":"2024-10-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/magazines\/cuba-the-ladies-in-white-6341\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T20:21:59","slug":"cuba-the-ladies-in-white-6341","status":"publish","type":"magazines","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/magazines\/cuba-the-ladies-in-white-6341\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba: The Ladies in White"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every Sunday, between 12.30pm and 1pm, Berta Soler Fern\u00e1ndez prepares herself. She is dressed all in white.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berta and her husband, \u00c1ngel Moya Acosta, step outside their home: a square, two storey building painted red, with a light green porch. They have every intention of making their way to a Roman Catholic church in the Miramar section of Havana, Cuba, where they hope to attend Mass and offer up prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like a dark version of the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Berta relives same Sunday over and over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 12:30pm and 1pm, Berta and \u00c1ngel open the door of their home and are met by National Revolutionary Police (NRP) officers and Department of State Security (DSS) agents. Mobs of paramilitary members \u2013 some holding signs with offensive and insulting messages \u2013 hold up mobile phones as they record the couple\u2019s movements. Instead of going to Mass, the two are forced into DSS cars with private license plates and taken to a National Revolutionary Police station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes they are taken in the same vehicle; sometimes forced into separate cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are ordered to undergo an intrusive medical examination. They refuse because they have not asked for an examination, and know that they will not be provided with the results anyway. (Those will go to the Department of State Security.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berta and \u00c1ngel are sent to semi-dark prison cells where they will be held until the following morning. Berta has been released as early as 5:45am, or as late as 11:50am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happens every week with small differences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Sundays Berta is given a bed bug infested mattress; other Sundays she is given nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes Berta is denied water; other times she is only permitted to quench her thirst at the discretion of the prison guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one occasion, she was forced to disrobe and squat. She refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c1ngel has been ordered to remove his flip-flops, exposing his feet to the filth of the prison cell floor. On one occasion, a DSS officer ordered guards to knock him down onto the floor. One of the guards pushed his knee into \u00c1ngel\u2019s back while another bent \u00c1ngel\u2019s right leg and painfully twisted his ankle. They pulled his arms tight behind his back, causing lacerations and inflammation in his wrists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Sundays, Berta and \u00c1ngel are ordered to sign an Acta de Advertencia \u2013 a kind of pre-arrest warrant \u2013 for the future crimes of disrespect, disobedience, and disturbing the public order. They always refuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berta and \u00c1ngel are never allowed a Bible or anything else to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berta is not alone in experiencing the same series of events every Sunday. There are others like her in Havana, as well as in Matanzas, Villa Clara and Holguin; other women dressed in white, detained through the hours of Sunday morning Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ladies in White, or Las Damas de Blanco, are a dissident group across Cuba. They have been holding peaceful protests in support of political prisoners since 2003, and Berta and \u00c1ngel\u2019s home serves as their national headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 20 years, the Cuban government has invested significant resources \u2013 especially in terms of manpower and time \u2013 to stop women affiliated with the Ladies in White from stepping inside a church; to prevent them from praying there, and to make sure they are not allowed to participate in the fellowship of Sunday services. The details may change in small ways, but the days are the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cuban government still erroneously believes that brute force and intimidation can destroy a woman\u2019s understanding \u2013 rooted in her faith \u2013 of what is right and true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cuban government is relentless, but so is Berta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By CSW\u2019s Head of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray for the Ladies in White on p.23 of Response & Prayer Diary (October 2024)<\/a><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Sunday, between 12.30pm and 1pm, Berta Soler Fern\u00e1ndez prepares herself. She is dressed all in white.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20822,"template":"","regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-31979","magazines","type-magazines","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazines"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41752,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazines\/31979\/revisions\/41752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=31979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}