As broadcast in Univision, “state security officers took away by force” four human rights activists “seeking to communicate with Pope Francis as the pontiff headed to his first Mass in Cuba on Sunday.”
In fact, “one of them managed to approach the Popemobile and receive a blessing from Pope Franic before being pulled away by security agents. Then, a group of non-uniformed people started pushing the individual and the others who fell to the ground after the struggle.”
The Foundation has confirmed the names of the detained activists, all members of the “Felix Varela” cell of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU): Zaqueo Baéz, Boris Reni, Aymara Nieto Muñoz, and Maria Josefa Acon Sardiña, who is also a member of the Ladies in White.
Felix Varela cell leader, Zaqueo Baéz, contacted the national coordinator of UNPACU, Jose Daniel Ferrer, just before his cell phone was confiscated by the political police, stating that the “Felix Varela cell must remain active despite whatever happens to him.”
Baéz, was the activist who received the blessing of Pope Francis from atop the Popemobile during the procession to the mass in Havana this morning.