The Crackdown and its Aftermath in Havana and Placetas

Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez (detained 11/13) Antonio Rodiles (detained 11/7)

The crackdown on nonviolent activists that began in Havana and spread to Camaguey on November 7 and 8, 2012 with 37 arrests spread to Placetas on November 13, 2012 with another 10 activists detained. Now a Cuban intellectual and communicator based in Havana, Antonio Rodiles, finds himself badly beaten with a black left eye along with several other bruises, the product of an unprovoked attack by state security agents in plainclothes and awaiting trial in a Cuban jail on the charge of "Resistance." He has been locked up now since November 7, 2012. On November 13, 2012 members of the Central Opposition Coalition in Placetas, Cuba marched to ratify a Declaration of Principles for the coalition. Ten of the marchers were arrested but most were released afterwards but Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez continues to be held in a Cuban jail. Below is a list of the ten arrested on November 13, 2012.

1.Yaite Cruz Sosa
2. Yanisbel Valido Pérez,
3. Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez
4. Yris Pérez Aguilera
5. Yolaine García Naranjo
6. Yenny Barallobre Columbié
7. Santa González Pedrosa
8. Damaris Moya Portieles
9. Arturo Conde Zamora
10. Yanoisi Contreras Aguilar.

The response of Cuban civil society inside and outside of the island has been to organize campaigns for the release of those still detained and to denounce the violence visited upon the activists. Below is a video of Cuban civil society members gathered on November 11, 2012 to outline what happened on November 7-8, 2012.


On November 14, 2012 in Placetas, Cuba Yris Pérez Aguilera joined together to march to the place her husband Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez was being arbitrarily detained demanding that he be released or that they arrest her. She was arrested by State Security and continues to be held in detention on November 15, 2012, but she managed to get out a audio recording of the march and her arrest.