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For immediate release...

Las Vegas, Nevada (10 February 2017) – The Libertarian Party of Nevada condemns the Cuban government’s arrest of two libertarian activists and calls for their immediate release. Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea were arrested 2 February 2017 by plainclothes secret policemen.  Both activists are still detained on trumped up charges.

Mises Cuba, the independent Cuban think tank based on Auburn, Alabama’s Ludwig von Mises Institute, confirmed their ongoing detention.  Both men were specifically targeted for their peaceful activism promoting limited government and free markets. They are political prisoners whose actions have harmed no one and damaged no property.

“The arrest of the libertarian activists in Cuba is a jarring reminder of both the Obama administration’s willingness to sacrifice Cuban refugees on the altar of realpolitik, and the Trump administration’s open hostility toward civil liberties and the rule of law,” says LPN Vice Chairman David Colborne. “I call on all liberty-minded political leaders in the U.S. to chart a new course by demanding the immediate and safe release of these Cuban libertarian activists.”

LPN Chairman Jason Smith expresses his condolences to the families of Herrera and Velasquez, and wants political leaders to “heed the judicial messages sent to our own President this week as a warning of what can happen to a country controlled by fear and too much government. What happened to these two activists could easily happen here in America, especially given the authoritarian streaks of Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions.”

The Libertarian Party of Nevada calls on the 49 other Libertarian state parties, our National Chairman Nicholas Sarwark, all Libertarian parties in Latin America, and all concerned citizens to:

1) Condemn the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba, and demand the safe release of the libertarian prisoners,

2) Ask the US State Department to place diplomatic pressure on Cuba for their release,

3) Call Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and State Legislators to make their own statements of support for these political prisoners.

Tyranny must be stopped wherever it threatens lives and freedom, whether in the US or in Cuba. The Libertarian Party of Nevada stands in solidarity with all Cuban libertarians.

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Note: This media release originally identified Mises Cuba as an affiliate of the Ludwig von Mises Institute rather than an independent organization based on the former. This error has been corrected.