Last Tuesday, June 16th, the President of our
Institute for Cuban Studies (IEC), Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez, who lives in Cuba as well other associates to the IEC, was accosted in the street by two people who warned him that he was going to
“have a bad time” and that they were going to
“walk all over him if he continues supporting the Ladies in White (las Damas de Blanco) and counterrevolutionary groups.”
In relation to this abominable act, the Executive Committee of the Institute for Cuban Studies declares the following:
1) We indignantly condemn the gross methods of intimidation used against our President, Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez;
2) We consider shameful that in a moment in which the national crisis calls for the cooperation and collective talent of all Cubans, the government insists on its repression and intolerance; and
3) While we have called upon the United States to lift its restrictions on academic exchanges with Cuba we also demand from Cuban authorities to put an end to the repression of freedoms of thought, expression and academic research within the island.
June 18, 2009
For the Executive Committee of the Institute for Cuban Studies:
(Signed) Juan Antonio Blanco, Gerardo González, María Cristina Herrera (Fundadora del IEC), Arnoldo Muller, Carlos Sotuyo and Oscar Visiedo.
2012-02-09
General information 