Prominent Cuban dissident seeks support in Europe

MADRID: A well-known Cuban dissident urged support from Europe on Tuesday for her group advocating democracy in Cuba, and wasn’t fazed when protesters disrupted her first appearance abroad by unfurling a pro-government banner and yelling that she was lying about harsh conditions for citizens of the island nation.
Berta Soler, the most prominent member of the Ladies in White group, told a crowd of about 100 in Madrid that she was basking in her first opportunity to say what she wants without fearing retribution. She had never been allowed to leave Cuba before.
Soler alleged that Cuba keeps about 80 dissidents locked up in miserable jails alongside convicted murderers and rapists and said the communist-run government led by Raul Castro only offers Cubans “repression, misery and lots of hunger.”
Most of those inmates are not recognized as prisoners of conscience by international human rights groups, however. Some were locked up for nonpolitical crimes and became activists behind bars; others are in jail for politically motivated but violent crimes like hijacking or sabotage.
Just before the event with Soler ended, about eight people in the crowd snuck a banner out of a backpack reading “Long Live the Cuban Revolution” and shouted that Soler was lying, scuffling with security guards as they were shooed out of a conference hall in downtown Madrid.
Smiling, Soler told the audience that she welcomed the demonstration, similar to a protest in Brazil last month when pro-Cuba protesters halted an event featuring prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez during her first trip abroad in years.
“What has happened is normal because we are in a country where democracy and liberty exist. If they want to talk, let them talk,” Soler said to applause from an audience that shouted “Cuba Yes!, Castro No!” in response.
The Ladies in White formed a decade ago and its members successfully pressed for the release of their husbands imprisoned in a 2003 crackdown. The group is now demanding political change in Cuba, and Soler said in an interview with The Associated Press that the country’s communist-run government remains in power because people fear losing jobs from the main employer — the government.