Washington, Aug 10 (EFE).– The U.S. government said Monday it is “deeply concerned” about the detentions for several hours of some 90 dissidents in Cuba, including members of the Ladies in White, and said it will continue working so that the right to peaceful assembly is respected in Cuba.

“We are deeply concerned by this round-up of peaceful activists by Cuban authorities,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said, adding that personnel in the U.S. Embassy in Havana have confirmed those arrests.

“The United States will continue to advocate the right for peaceful assembly, association and freedom of expression,” he said.

The detentions came just a few days before Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Havana for the formal U.S. flag-raising ceremony at the American Embassy in Cuba, opened in July as part of the normalizing of diplomatic relations that were broken off over half a century ago.

The spokesman was referring to this Sunday’s detentions for several hours of activists who had staged a protest demonstration at a Havana park, some carrying photos of political prisoners and others wearing masks that looked like U.S. President Barack Obama.

Opposition members Antonio Gonzalez-Rodiles, his girlfriend Ayler Gonzalez, and Angel Santiesteban told EFE that they were arrested and taken in a patrol car to a detention center at midday Sunday, after meeting with the Ladies in White at the end of the women’s customary weekly procession after attending Mass in Havana’s Miramar neighborhood.

The three said they were locked up for several hours and that they knew of other dissidents in the same situation, such as Aliuska Gomez of the Ladies in White, who has now been set free.

Gonzalez-Rodiles said the demonstrators were carrying photos of jailed comrades as evidence of “the resurgence of repression against opposition activists,” and as part of the “All Marching Together” campaign calling for the release of political prisoners.

According to the latest report by the opposition Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission, or CCDHRN, at least 674 temporary detentions were made during July for political reasons, the highest number since June 2014.

There were also 21 cases of physical abuse during those arrests. EFE