Eight New Dissident Arrests

at 9:01 PM Sunday, August 29, 2010
According to AFP:

Cuban dissidents have accused the government of rounding up more political prisoners -- even as Havana continued freeing dozens of detained activists in a deal reached last month with Catholic leaders and Spain.

Activists said on Sunday three of the newly detained dissidents were being held in Havana, and five others in Guantanamo, in eastern Cuba.

Opposition leaders said the detainees in the Cuban capital were Luis Labrador, Eduardo Perez and Michel Rodriguez, all of whom were arrested on August 16 during a protest at the University of Havana.

"They committed no crime, they were just exercising their rights of free speech and free assembly, but were arrested all the same," said Sarah Marta Fonseca, who was briefly detained at the same protest, but later released.

Meanwhile, Cuban dissident leader Elizardo Sanchez told AFP that five other dissidents were arrested on August 12 for attending a political meeting at a private home in Guantanamo.

Sanchez identified those detained as Francisco Manzanet, Roberto Gonzalez, Enyor Diaz, and two brothers, Ernesto Rodriguez Lobaina and Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina.