'Lady in White' stripped naked, handcuffed, dragged to a jail cell Diario de Cuba - translated by Babalú blog March 14, 2016
Ladies in White and other activists who participated this Sunday in the #TodosMarchamos campaign told Diario de Cuba of a worrisome increase in violence that included at least one incident of sexual abuse.
“We were subjected to a lot of violence today,” said Aliuska Gómez (below). “Many of us were dragged and beaten, “ she added, pointing out that this has taken place only one week before President Obama’s visit.
Aliuska, of The Ladies in White, related how she was taken to a police station in Mariano, where she was forcibly undressed by several uniformed female officers in plain view of some males. .
“After they had taken away all of my belongings,” she said, “they told me to strip naked, and I refused… so they threw me down on the floor and took off all of my clothing, right in front of two men, and they dragged me completely naked into a jail cell.”
Aliuska Gómez was then handcuffed and thrown on the cell’s floor, naked, and left alone for forty minutes.
After that, she said, “One of the officers came by and I told her that what they had done to me was very degrading, and that I couldn’t understand how she could do this to me, another woman, just like her, who is also a mother, sister, or daughter.”
The guard replied: “This is my job.”
“Nothing like this had ever happened to me in my life,” said Lady in White Aliuska Gómez, adding: “My hands are swollen and they still hurt from the handcuffs and from being dragged across the floor.”
After her clothing was returned to her, Gómez insisted on speaking to an official of State Security, and said she would refuse to leave the police station until she “received an explanation” for the abuse she had endured.
The police responded by dragging her out to a patrol car and taking her home. “I will never forget what they did to me today,” said Aliuska Gómez.
Gómez was only one of twenty-one Ladies in White and a dozen other activists arrested on Sunday as they left St. Rita Church on their way to Ghandi Park on Fifth Avenue in Mirarmar, a suburb of Havana.
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