Above: the US State Department’s Harry S Truman building

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The United States Department of State issued a statement Thursday condemning Cuba’s government following reports of “arbitrary detentions by Cuban authorities.”

The detentions reportedly included dozens of members of civil society including prominent pro-democracy activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, his wife Yris Perez Aguilera, Ladies in White spokesperson Berta Soler and her husband, Angel Moya.

The department said it had also seen reports that journalist Roberto de Jesus Guerra was “violently assaulted and suffered a broken nose and torn ligaments.”

In the statement, the US condemned what it saw as the Cuban government’s “systematic use of physical violence and arbitrary detention to silence its critics, disrupt peaceful assembly and even, in the case of the detentions of Ms Soler and Mr Moya, prevent attendance at a court hearing unrelated to broader issues of governance.”

“We urge the government of Cuba to end these practices and respect the universal human rights of Cuban citizens,” said Marie Harf, Deputy Department Spokesperson at the Office of the Spokesperson of the US Department of State.