Police briefly detained 304 dissidents, restricted the movements of another 201 and have been holding 22 more for possible trials since early November, Cuba's foremost human rights monitor, Elizardo Sanchez, said Wednesday. The crackdown comes at a time when President Fidel Castro appears increasingly worried about the level of discontent on the island and the recognition that dissidents have been winning in Cuba and abroad. Police patrols in Havana, which rose dramatically in January 1999 amid government complaints of a growing crime wave, have intensified further since late November, said several residents of the Cuban capital. Eight foreign heads of government and foreign ministers made a point of meeting with Sanchez and other dissidents during a summit meeting Nov. 15-16 of Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese leaders in Havana.
Cuban officials deny any crackdown.
The numbers for February are running about the same as January, he said. Sanchez's report is expected to bolster an attempt to condemn Cuba at the annual U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting next month in Geneva. Sanchez said he was particularly concerned by some of the new and allegedly unlawful methods that Cuba's secret state security police have been using to harass and intimidate dissidents. Police who ordered the 201 dissidents to stay at home or away from Havana during some scheduled meetings of dissidents showed no orders from any judges or prosecutors, he added. In another effort to silence critics on the island, an unusually large number of dissidents have been receiving long-denied government permission to leave Cuba, said Ruth Montaner, a Miami exile active in supporting dissident groups in Cuba.