Those of you who honor me by reading my pathetic BugStuff™ diaries know that I almost always link to Generation Y, the blog of Cuban cyber-dissident Yoani Sanchez. I do this for two reasons. One, her blog is one of the best in the world and two, she blogs under harassment by the government of Cuba, so giving her links and publicity is a way to keep her safe and (relatively) free.
Yesterday whe was detained and beaten by agents of the Cuban state.
Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez detained, beaten on way to march
Famed Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said Friday she and another blogger were punched and thrown violently into a car by presumed state security agents as they walked to participate in a peaceful march in downtown Havana.
``No blood, but black and blues, punches, pulled hairs, blows to the head, kidneys, knee and chest,'' Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald shortly after she and Orlando Luis Pardo were freed. ``In sum, professional violence.''
``I, being a person of verbal pacifism, am shaken by this violence, because violence silences anyone,'' the blogger declared in a telephone interview.
Sanchez herself blogged about it today:
Near 23rd Street, just at the Avenida de los Presidentes roundabout, we saw a black car, made in China, pull up with three heavily built strangers. "Yoani, get in the car," one told me while grabbing me forcefully by the wrist. The other two surrounded Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and a friend who was accompanying us to the march against violence. The ironies of life, it was an evening filled with punches, shouts and obscenities on what should have passed as a day of peace and harmony. The same "aggressors" called for a patrol car which took my other two companions, Orlando and I were condemned to the car with yellow plates, the terrifying world of lawlessness and the impunity of Armageddon.
I refused to get into the bright Geely-made car and we demanded they show us identification or a warrant to take us. Of course they didn’t show us any papers to prove the legitimacy of our arrest. The curious crowded around and I shouted, "Help, these men want to kidnap us," but they stopped those who wanted to intervene with a shout that revealed the whole ideological background of the operation, "Don’t mess with it, these are counterrevolutionaries." In the face of our verbal resistance they made a phone call and said to someone who must have been the boss, "What do we do? They don’t want to get in the car." I imagine the answer from the other side was unequivocal, because then came a flurry of punches and pushes, they got me with my head down and tried to push me into the car. I held onto the door... blows to my knuckles... I managed to take a paper one of them had in his pocket and put it in my mouth. Another flurry of punches so I would return the document to them.
Clearly, the Government of Cuba has decided to increase the pressure on Sanchez, who is achieving wide international fame. This is probably a warning of some sort.
Background on Yoani Sanchez:
Newsweek
Time
El Pais
The Wall Street Journal