Cuba holds 200 dissidents in last two weeks, rights group reports

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuban authorities have detained around 200 opposition activists in the last two weeks, mainly for short periods apparently to prevent anti-government activities, a dissident human rights group said on Wednesday.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said that of those rounded up, only four remained in detention, with two having been tried for "disrespect" to authorities at a Havana tribunal.

Commission president Elizardo Sanchez said one of the dissidents, Angel Moya Acosta, who was detained prior to a planned December 4 opposition march, was sentenced on Tuesday to one year in jail for "disrespect" after an argument with a policeman over a phone call he wanted to make from jail.

Moya, who comes from the province of Matanzas, was also ordered not to return to the Cuban capital Havana in 10 years, even though his wife and children live there, Sanchez added.

A second dissident, Julia Cecilia Delgado, was being tried separately on Wednesday for her involvement in the same incident.

Cuban officials did not confirm the arrests or the trials, and there was no mention of either on state-run media.

Many of the arrests took place around Sunday, which was Human Rights Day, to stop events like open-air meetings or the distribution of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.

Havana rejects the word "dissident," saying all opponents to the government are U.S.-backed "counter-revolutionary" troublemakers often masquerading as peaceful activists to disguise what Cuba views as illegal activities.

Sanchez, himself a well-known Cuban dissident who has served time in jail, said Russian President Vladimir Putin's delegation, due to arrive at Havana later on Wednesday, had no intention of meeting with the local opposition.

"The Russian Embassy has always kept itself very distant from the dissidents," he said. "On human rights issues, the Cuban and Russian governments are allies. Both governments have negative records, according to international rights groups."

Although Moscow abandoned its one-party communist system a decade ago in favor of multi-party democracy, Putin is not expected to raise political differences with President Fidel Castro, who has maintained communism in Cuba for four decades. Cuba's ruling Communist Party is the only legal political grouping on the Caribbean island.

The increased use of short-term arrests by Cuban security services has kept at bay Cuba's small opposition movement, which analysts say currently poses little threat to Castro's power base.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Cubaweb
Cuban American National Foundation
Amnesty International Report 2000 report on Cuba
U.S. State Department
  • U.S. 1999 Human Rights Reports for Cuba
  • The U. S. and Cuba

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