to threaten him and his family, friends told BosNewsLife.
"Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, is suffering constant and systematic acts of provocation and threats to his person and his home by Cuban State Security," said the Coalition of Cuban-American Women, an advocacy group.
The troubles began last week, May 24, when the lawyer, who leads the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights, and his father were reportedly awakened "when a huge stone was violently thrown against the gate of his house in the city of Ciego de Avila.
Speaking by telephone, Gonzalez Leiva said military personnel have set up a post facing his house, according to a transcript of the conversation received by BosNewsLife.
In addition, State Security agents allegedly threatened "to beat" him, while shouting "insults at
him," and chanting "pro-governmental slogans" and "humiliating him publicly," the Coalition of
Cuban-American Women said.
MORE CONFRONTATIONS
The latest reported incidents resembled confrontations in September last year when Cuba’s security forces and government supporters allegedly threatened to kill him unless he stopped his human rights activities and left the Communist island.
Gonzalez Leiva, 41, has been living under house arrest following his release from prison where he served over two years on what human rights groups described as "trumped up charges" of "disorderly conduct, disrespect for authority, disobedience and resisting arrest."
He and nine other were arrested on March 4, 2002, after staging a protest at the Antonio Luaces Iraola provincial hospital, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Havana, where independent journalist Jesus Alvarez Castillo was reportedly being treated for injuries from a
confrontation with police.
FOUNDATION CONTINUES
Despite the pressure his Cuban Foundation of Human Rights says it continues to be active as "a peaceful, pro-democracy organization that struggles for the development of a civil society and the defense of human rights" in Cuba. "I can never renounce the Christian love for human beings and the defense of rights … which don’t depend on any state or political power," Gonzalez Leiva said in a previous statement.
His organization claims it has delegates across Cuba and created independent press agencies and established over 40 independent libraries. Cuban leader Fidel Castro has strongly denied
human rights abuses and says there are no "dissidents" on his Communist island.
Castro has described jailed activists are "mercenaries of the United States" seeking to overthrow his government. (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Cuba).
