Around 20 Cuban dissidents were detained and most of them released on Thursday in a sweep targeting government opponents, opposition sources said.
“At least 16 of around 20 of those detained are already free,” said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation group.
Sanchez, whose rights organization is officially illegal, said another four of those arrested had not yet arrived at their homes.
The reports came a day after the Cuban Foreign Ministry said dissident activity had increased with the aid of US diplomats in Havana and warned it would not be tolerated.
“It looks to everyone like a concrete expression of what they said yesterday,” Sanchez said of the detentions.
The reported detentions appeared aimed at heading off a meeting of dissident groups in Havana, Sanchez said.
Leading dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said earlier as many as 40 government opponents had been targeted in the regime’s roundup.
Another opposition leader, Vladimiro Roca, called the sweep “a giant act of repression throughout the entire country.”
He said it targeted above all else dissidents in Havana “because we were planning to hold a meeting here and they did not give permission” for it.
The brief arrests come just days after the EU decided to formally lift sanctions against Cuba imposed following a 2003 dissident crackdown.
Since becoming president in February, Raul Castro, 77, has allowed Cubans to buy computers, own mobile telephones, rent cars and spend nights in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners — if they can afford such luxuries.
But the arrests suggest he may also be as resistant as his older brother Fidel to granting political freedoms to the opposition, critics said.
The Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate reported similar numbers and accused the government of “harsh repression.”
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday it had learned of plans for “provocative actions” by dissidents planned for yesterday, Independence Day in the US.
The US would be held responsible for whatever happens as Cuba responds to dissident activities, it said.
Cuba views dissidents as mercenaries for the US, which has imposed a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962 aimed at bringing down its socialist government.
Greg Adams, spokesman for the US Interests Section in Havana, said the US had done nothing to increase opposition activity.
“We’re acting as we have acted for a long time,” he said.
The interests section, which substitutes for an embassy because Havana and Washington have no diplomatic relations, works with dissidents and gives money to families of political prisoners.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese