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The “damas de blanco” (Women in White) and their struggle to free cuban political prisoners

Every Sunday since 2003 a group of Cuban women dressed in white walk the streets of Havana demanding freedom for their husbands and relatives, sentenced to terms of up to 28 years in jail for “acts against the State” and “undermining the principles of the Cuban revolution”, among other accusations.

They call themselves the "Damas de Blanco”, and, despite opposition from and persecution by the Cuban authorities, they unflinchingly continue their struggle to free these dissidents of the Castro regime. Current estimates set the number of political prisoners in Cuban jails at almost two hundred.

This group of women has received as much international support as it has criticism. Institutions such as the European Parliament and organisations like Amnesty International have demanded that these prisoners be set free, in a context of tension aggravated by the recent death due to a hunger strike of one of the incarcerated dissidents.