Laura Inés Pollán Toledo (February 13, 1948 in Manzanillo, Cuba – October 14, 2011) was a prominent Cubanopposition leader. Pollan founded the dissident group Ladies in White, which holds pacific protest marches with the wives and spouses of political prisoners in Cuba to demand their release.[1]
Pollan worked as a literatureteacher until her retirement in 2004.[1] In 2003, her husband, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, and seventy-four other Cubans, now known as the Group of 75, were arrested in the Black Spring, a crackdown on opposition figures.[1] The group included journalists, activists, and commentators whom the Cuban government accused of taking money from foreign governments, including the United States.[1]
Pollan soon began appearing outside government facilities where her husband could have potentially been imprisoned.[1] She soon ran into the wives of other political prisoners, which led to the founding of the Ladies in White.[1] Pollan always wore white, a symbol of the organization, and became a key opposition figure in Cuba. Her home at 963 Calle Neptuno in Havana became a center of opposition where she hosted literary tea for wives of political prisoners.[2]
Pollan died of cardiorespiratory arrest on October 14, 2011, at the age of 63.[1] She had been hospitalized since October 7.[1] According to the Cuban government, she had suffered from dengue fever.[3]
