From: lazaro@riemann.math.mun.ca (Lazaro Nunez)
Subject: Efforts on behalf of Maria Elena Cruz Varela
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 19:26:14 GMT

I found more information about the arrest of Maria Elena Cruz Varela in the
New York Times of Dec. 7, 1991. Here it goes.

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	      Castro Meets Dissent With an Iron Hand
		      By Howard W. French
		  Special to The New York Times

Miami, Dec. 7 [1991] - Two months after a congress of the ruling Cuban
Communist Party hinted at limited democratic reforms, the Government of
President Fidel Castro has unleashed a violent crackdown on political
dissent.
   In recent weeks, according to international human rights monitors and
diplomats, members of Cuba's embryonic political opposition have been
imprisoned after hasty trials on charges like "illicit association" and
"defamation." Some have been beaten by angry crowds, directed by
plainclothes security agents, or otherwise menaced.
   On Nov. 19, according to the human rights group Americas Watch, as
many as 200 people surrounded the home of one dissident, the poet Maria
Elena Cruz Varela, chanting "Down With Worms," a term often employed in
Government-sponsored demonstrations against political opponents.
   With plainclothes agents firing gunshots into the air, a mob burst
into Ms. Cruz's apartment and in an "act of repudiation," as the
demonstrations are called in the Government-controlled press, forced the
poet to eat some of her political writings in the presence of her
daughter.
                       Dragged Down Stairs by Hair
   Minutes later, the 37-year-old poet was dragged by the hair down four
flights of stairs and into the street, where she was arrested, the human
rights group said. Ms. Cruz was accused of distributing leaflets about a
dissident group, Criterio Alternativo, of which she is a leader. The
pamphlets carried the simple slogan "Join the Liberal Criterion
Alternative."
   Ms. Cruz was sentenced last week to two years in prison, and several
other dissident groups have been detained in the wave of arrests, some
of whom have also been beaten by crowds surrounding their homes like Ms.
Cruz.
   The Government's ire against Ms. Cruz had been mounting since the
summer, when she wrote a public letter with a small group of
intellectuals that condemned what they said was Cuba's one-party
dictatorship and the cult of personality that surrounds Mr. Castro.
			    Attacked in Granma
   In June, shortly after the letter was distributed to foreign
journalists, the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, ran a series of
front-page articles attacking the dissidents.
   But specialists of Cuban affairs say the Government has been prompted
to harsher action by the group's recent success in attracting the
attention of diplomats and foreigners at a time when Cuba, its economy
badly deteriorating, has been desperately seeking private investment
from abroad. One day before her arrest, Ms. Cruz had met with the
visiting president of the Asturias autonomous region of Spain, Juan Luis
Rodriguez Vigil, from whom Cuba hoped to win Spanish capital.
   On Wednesday, diplomats from several European countries were turned
away by plainclothesmen from the courthouse where Ms. Cruz
unsuccessfully appealed her conviction. In addition, diplomats say, the
Castro Government's recent actions have offended many Latin American
leaders.
   At the conclusion of a meeting on Tuesday of 13 Latin American and
Caribbean leaders in Cartagena, Colombia, the final communique expressed
"profound concern for the situation and future of Cuba."
 
---------------------------end of article------------------------------------

   I haven't got any answer yet from Amnesty International about her current
situation. What I suggest is for those concerned about Ms. Cruz Varela to
send letters signed by various persons to the Cuban Embassy in their countries
or the country wherever they happen to be, asking for the release of Maria
Elena. I'm completing the list of addresses of Cuban Embassies around the world
and expect to have it ready by tomorrow. I'll post it then and we hope for
your cooperation in this campaign. I'll also post the previous article plus the
addresses to other soc.culture.* newsgroups.
   Human right abuses are WRONG and we should combat them no matter where they 
happen. Help Maria Elena Cruz Varela, please.

-- 
| Lazaro Nun~ez Figueiral         ||  !Lloran sobre el Mar de Cuba	     |
| Memorial University of Nfld.    ||  enormes flores bermejas;	             |
| St. John's, Terranova, Canada.  ||  sobre la isla perdida	   	     |
| lazaro@odie.cs.mun.ca           ||  el aire amarillo tiembla! - F.G. Lorca |