Ladies in White
Damas de Blanco: a Cuban dissident women's movement founded in 2003 by wives and relatives of imprisoned dissidents; two of the three Santiago UNPACU defendants are former members.
Last refreshed: 12 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Are the Ladies in White still able to march despite escalating detentions in 2026?
Timeline for Ladies in White
Three women face years for a blackout protest
Cuba Dispatch- Who are Cuba's Ladies in White?
- The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) are a Cuban women's dissident movement founded in 2003 by relatives of the 75 activists imprisoned in the March 2003 Black Spring crackdown. Members march weekly in white dresses carrying gladioli after Sunday Mass as a form of silent witness against political imprisonment.Source: Lowdown Cuba Dispatch
- Who leads the Ladies in White now?
- Berta Soler has led the Ladies in White since 2012, following the death of founder Laura Pollan. She has been detained more than 50 times on short-term administrative holds. In May 2026 the OCDH documented her same-day detention as one of 332 repressive actions that month.Source: OCDH / Infobae
- Why do the Ladies in White wear white and carry flowers?
- The white dresses and gladioli were chosen in 2003 as a form of silent witness that carried a religious and peaceful framing, making it politically costly for the Cuban government to arrest women who had just attended Mass. The symbolism was deliberately chosen to test the limits of state repression without providing an obvious legal pretext.Source: Lowdown Cuba Dispatch
- Have the Ladies in White won any international awards?
- Yes. The European Parliament awarded the Ladies in White the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005, providing international legitimacy that has complicated the Cuban government's ability to suppress the movement without diplomatic consequences.Source: Lowdown Cuba Dispatch
- Are the Ladies in White connected to UNPACU?
- The two movements share overlapping membership. Two of the three UNPACU defendants in the June 2026 Santiago trial are described as former Ladies in White members. Cuba's small dissident community means the same people often participate in multiple organisations simultaneously.Source: Lowdown Cuba Dispatch
Background
The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) is a Cuban women's dissident movement founded in 2003 by the wives, mothers and sisters of the 75 journalists, librarians and activists imprisoned in the March 2003 Black Spring crackdown, the largest single round-up of dissidents in post-revolutionary Cuba. Members wear white dresses and carry gladioli as they march after Sunday Mass, a form of silent witness chosen precisely because its peaceful, religious framing tested whether the authorities would arrest women leaving church. In its early years the movement gained international visibility, receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 2005. Its leader Berta Soler has guided the organisation since 2012, following the death of founder Laura Pollan.
The Ladies in White have faced sustained state harassment over two decades: marches are regularly interrupted by government-organised counter-demonstrators (a tactic known as actos de repudio), members are briefly detained, and Soler herself has been arrested more than 50 times on short-term administrative holds. Their membership overlaps with other dissident structures; two of the three UNPACU defendants in the June 2026 Santiago trial are described as former members, illustrating the cross-pollination within Cuba's small civil-society network. The movement's white-dress march continues to function as the most internationally recognisable symbol of Cuban civil-society resistance, even as its organisational capacity has been worn by decades of attrition.
In May 2026 the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) documented the same-day detention of Berta Soler among 332 repressive actions logged for the month, the most recent instance in a pattern of brief arrests timed to prevent her from leading marches or meeting foreign visitors. The detention was same-day: she was released within hours, consistent with the administrative rather than criminal hold the authorities typically apply to prevent a specific public act rather than to prosecute. Soler's visibility internationally means her detentions generate diplomatic correspondence in a way that anonymous arrests do not.
