Cuban dissidents say they're being held at home after activist's death

Posted on Wednesday, 02.24.10
Cuban dissidents say they're being held at home after activist's death
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban security forces, fearing protests over the hunger-strike death of
political prisoner Orlando Zapata, have detained or kept home at least
50 dissidents and deployed agents to the cemetery where he may be
buried, island activists said Wednesday.

Zapata's mother told supporters in Miami Wednesday afternoon that she
and his body had just arrived at her home in Banes, in the eastern
province of Holguin, and that government security officials were
insisting that he be buried at 6pm.

``It's not important, but they will pay for this. They will pay for
this,'' Reina Luisa Tamayo said between sobs in a phone conversation
with the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Dissident Juan Verdecia Ebora, speaking from the home, told El Nuevo
Herald earlier in the day that security forces had surrounded the house,
established a checkpoint at the main entrance to Banes and deployed
uniformed guards around the town's cemetery.

Since Zapata's death Tuesday, ``the government has unleashed a wave of
repression . . . because it does not want people at the funeral or other
activities,'' said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission for
Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana.

Security forces across the island have detained more than 25 activists
and restricted an equal number to their homes, warning them not to
participate in any activities marking the case, Sánchez said in a
telephone interview.

Many dissidents nevertheless are marking Zapata's death with ceremonies
at their homes, he added, and one group in the north-central city of
Matanzas planned a street protest Wednesday.

In the city of Holguín, near Banes, independent journalist Caridad
Caballero told El Nuevo Herald that security forces were surrounding her
home on all four sides, and had warned her that she would be detained if
she stepped outside.

Independent journalist Luis Felipe Rojas, also in Holguin, said security
forces also were stationed outside his home and had detained or
restricted to their homes other dissidents in Santiago, Guantánamo, Moa,
Antilla and Camagüey -- all in eastern Cuba.

Cuban dissidents say they're being held at home after activist's death -
Miami-Dade Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com (24 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/24/1497814/cuban-dissidents-say-theyre-being.html