democracy activists ahead of next month’s planned national meeting of opponents of President Fidel Castro’s government, dissident sources told BosNewsLife Wednesday, April 6.
The feared political police are "threatening members of the pro democracy movement throughout the [Communist] island," said Sonia Barge of the dissident movement Plantados Hasta La Libertad en Cuba or "Until Freedom And Democracy in Cuba," which includes former political prisoners.
"Several dissidents have been taken to police stations for questioning, while others are threatened for instance by phone," she added from her Miami office. "The police try to do it in the shadow as they know it could harm Cuba’s relations with the European Union", which recently offered to ease sanctions in exchange for more political freedom.
In a statement from Havana to BosNewsLife News Center, former prisoners of conscience Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Rene Gomez Manzano said their "telephones are interrupted, cutting all communication with members of the peaceful opposition movement in Cuba and with the international community."
The two dissidents recently established the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, a coalition of 343 groups including small political groupings, human rights activists and independent libraries. It is also the main organizer of the May 20 national gathering to "discuss all problems related to the promotion and development of Cuban civil society."
SEVERE BLOW
Cuba’s dissident movement was dealt a severe blow in March last year when Castro ordered the arrest of 75 leading dissidents, including Roque, one of two woman among them, said Barge. They were sentenced in one-day trials to prison terms of up to 28 years for conspiring with the United States against Cuba.
Since last year at least 14 of the group of 75 have been freed on medical grounds as the government seeks to improve its international image and repair diplomatic relations with the EU. However Barge said the move was not sincere as many dissidents, including Christians, are still in prison, often in apparently harsh conditions.
"They are slowly killing my son," said Gloria Amaya Gonzalez, the aging mother of
prisoner of conscience, Guido Sigler Amaya in a statement. As a result of an "acute oral infection" he cannot ingest anything solid and has lost a lot of weight, she reportedly said.
MORE DIFFICULTIES
He reportedly also suffers from bleeding hemorrhoids, an inflamed prostate and kidney problems among other medical ailments, his mother added, but prison guars allegedly refuse to allow medications to be administered to him.
Gloria Amaya Gonzalez, has urged the international community to intervene. Her other son
Ariel Sigler Amaya, is serving a 25-year sentence, and another son Miguel Sigler Amaya, was released January 11 after serving almost a two year prison sentence since March 18, 2003, when the three were detained for their political activities.
News of the apparent crackdown on pro democracy activists and harsh prison conditions came after family members of Christian blind lawyer and human rights activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva were reportedly detained last week during a meeting.
CUBAN FOUNDATION
"On the morning of March 31, 2005, members of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights.. in the city of Ciego de Avila [at] the residence of Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, president of said organization," a statement said.
They wanted to discuss the Paloma Award for Human Rights, a price which the group grants "to outstanding independent journalists and human rights activists in Cuba," the group said in a statement to BosNewsLife News Center. "Upon the conclusion of the meeting, the political police combined with State Security forces, mobilized and arrested several members of Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva’s family."
The Communist government does not recognize the term ‘dissident’ and says it has the right to protect the revolution against what it calls "mercenaries of the United States."
(With BosNewsLife News Center, and reports from Havana and Miami).
