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HAVANA (AFP) — Cuba this week rounded up and detained more than 30
dissidents after accusing the United States of "instigating" opposition
to the Communist regime, a top rights activist told AFP.
As many as 35 people were arrested and around 70 targeted in all, but
most have now been freed, economist Martha Beatriz Roque of the rights
group Agenda for the Transition said Saturday.
The regime's roundup was aimed at halting a meeting of pro-democracy
advocates and clamping down on the dissidents' plan to mark the US
Independence Day holiday on July 4th, she said.
"Almost all the people arrested have now been freed," she said.
Those who were not detained received warnings from the government, were
placed under house arrest or barred from traveling to the capital,
Havana, she said.
"The objective of the operation was to prevent a meeting of the Agenda
group scheduled for Thursday, and to bar them from participating in the
celebration of the United States' Fourth of July holiday," Roque said.
The Agenda meeting was cancelled and the July 4th party went ahead
without incident at the home of Michael Parmly, the US diplomat and
chief of mission at the US Interests Section (USIS) in Havana, Roque said.
Cuba's communist government has accused the USIS of serving as a
"headquarters" for opposition groups, which are banned in Cuba, and says
the US funnels money, communications and other forms of support to
regime opponents via the Interests Section.
Wednesday, the government of President Raul Castro issued a statement
saying acts of dissidence in the streets would not be tolerated and
denounced "an escalation" of what it called "warped" opposition that was
"instigated" by the US Interests Section.
The brief arrests came just days after the European Union decided to
formally lift sanctions against Cuba imposed following a 2003 dissident
crackdown in the Americas' only one-party communist state.
Raul Castro has made no nod to political pluralism, and his economic
reforms have been quite limited.
Since officially becoming president in February to succeed his ailing
brother Fidel, Raul Castro 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.
In his latest reform move, he announced last month that the government
was scrapping salary caps long meant to underscore egalitarianism but
which his administration says hurt productivity.
He also has implemented reforms that give farmers better pay and more
flexibility to buy farming equipment, a move designed to lessen the
impact of the world food crisis.
The younger Castro brother, 77, also has commuted 30 death sentences,
released some political prisoners, and signed human rights accords.
In addition, television has fewer taboos and Granma, the venerable
Communist Party mouthpiece, even has taken to publishing grievances from
residents.
But a top Communist Party official warned Saturday that a large-scale
media liberalization was not in the offing.
"There won't be any flirting with the enemy ideology," Politburo member
Easteban Lazo told a meeting of the Union of Cuban Journalists.
Meanwhile, the Spanish daily El Pais cited an unnamed government
official in a report in April as saying Raul Castro would give a green
light soon to migration reform, simplifying exit and entry permits and
ending the requirement for people to get permission to leave the country.
In an economically stressed country of more than 11 million people, such
a policy change would test Cuba's stability, as the nearby United States
grants automatic residency and working rights to all Cubans who reach US
soil after fleeing their homeland.
Mandatory permits and a passport add hundreds of dollars in travel costs
in a country where most workers make about 17 dollars a month. Many
critics see the regulations as just short of an effective travel ban for
Cuban nationals.
Late last month ailing longtime leader Fidel Castro, 81, strongly denied
rumors that he was the leader of a faction of hardline Communists
disgruntled about reforms introduced in Cuba since his brother Raul
succeeded him.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jF_iowzWTHa02fIqTKcBwufU7Khw
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