April 3, but it was unclear whether his unprecedented show of religious tolerance would lead to the release of arrested Christian activists. The Cuban leader also suspended planned Communist youth festivities as well as the finals of the national baseball league, news reports said. Church bells reportedly tolled for over 30 minutes late Saturday, after the pope’s death was announced at the Vatican.
John Paul II was the only pope ever to visit Cuba, in 1998, and he has been praised by Havana for what members of the Castro government saw as the church leader’s opposition to "neo-liberal capitalism", the Voice Of America (VOA) reported.
DISSIDENTS
Just before the mourning began for the pontiff, Cuban dissident sources told BosNewsLife that family members of Christian blind lawyer and human rights activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva had been detained earlier this week during a meeting.
"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."
ARRESTED
Andres Gonzalez Leiva the brother of the blind lawyer, "was removed from his home and arrested because he had a radio provided by the United States Interest Section in Havana. His whereabouts are presently unknown," the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights said.
A cousin of the lawyer, identified as Santiago Santoyo Gonzalez, was also detained "for possessing a DVD donated to the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights by the United States Interest Section in Havana. However State Security [forces] refused to acknowledge papers presented by Gonzalez Leiva, which proved the DVD’s lawful origin and informed him his cousin would remain in prison," the organization claimed.
Other family members were also believed to have been detained elsewhere in the Communist island. In a transcript received by BosNewsLife News Center Gonzales Leiva, who has himself been under house arrest, said he and other activists had gone on hunger strike to protest the "unlawful arrest" of his family.
FREEDOM
"We want freedom. It is important that the international community witness the response given by the Cuban government to the European Union and other international bodies, that ease and lift sanctions placed against Cuba for its record of human rights violations," he said.
Last month a top European Union official said he had urged Cuban president Fidel Castro to release jailed dissidents. EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel characterized the four hour meeting on March 27 as "cordial".
Michel also met with members of Cuba’s dissident movement during the three-day visit, news reports said. He was the most senior European official to visit Cuba since the Castro communist government imprisoned 75 dissidents in March, 2003. The EU responded with diplomatic sanctions, but later suspended them after 14 of the prisoners were released.
TORTURE
However the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights has urged the international community not to back down as many are still in prisons where it claims conditions are harsh with psychological, physical terror and torture.
Man and women are reportedly detained in lightless cells known as gavetas with a hole in the ground for "bodily needs," and are infested with rodents, roaches and other insects. Gonzalez Leiva was quoted as saying there were "screams of tormented women in panic and desperation who cry for God’s mercy." He said the women are sometimes injected with sedatives to silence them.
Cuba has not allowed the International Red Cross to visit or inspect its prisons since 1989, human rights watchers claim. The Cuban government has denied there are dissidents in Cuba, and says its actions are aimed at "mercenaries" of the United States and "counter-revolutionaries."
(With reports from Cuba, dissident sources, BosNewsLife Research and Stefan J. Bos)
