MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Wives of jailed dissidents march in Havana

Some 30 wives of jailed Cuban dissidents staged a march Sunday in Havana to demand the release of imprisoned members of the opposition and political change in Cuba.

The women, dressed in white and carrying flowers, attended Mass at Santa Rita Church, in the Miramar neighbourhood, and marched peacefully down 5th Avenue, as they have been doing every week since the spring of 2003, when 75 peaceful dissidents were given long prison sentences following a crackdown on the opposition.

However, the scene was much different from last Sunday, when some 200 members of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) blocked the weekly march by the so-called "Damas en Blanco" (Women in White), chanting pro-government slogans and screaming insults.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque defended the federation's actions last week, saying that "in Cuba, the streets belong to the revolutionaries".

"The street belongs to the revolutionaries. We are revolutionaries, because revolution means change," Marcela Sanchez, wife of dissident Marcelo Lopez, said Sunday. Marcelo Lopez was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 and released last November for health reasons. The women responded to Lopez's statement with shouts of "change, change".

The lack of problems Sunday "could be an attempt by the government to present this as an act of tolerance as the time for debate in Geneva nears" said Gisela Delgado referring to the upcoming 61st annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in the Swiss city.

Mrs. Delgado is the wife of Hector Palacios, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison following the Cuban government's crackdown on the opposition two years ago.

Gisela Delgado was one of the Women in White who met Saturday with European Union Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, the first high-ranking EU official to visit since relations with the island were normalized in January.

Michel "was receptive" to the requests of the dissidents' wives according to Gisela Delgado who added that "there was nothing firm in the way of advances on the situation of the prisoners".

On March 18, 2003, Cuban authorities began arresting members of the opposition, many of them backers of dissident leader Oswaldo Paya's Varela Project, a democratic initiative now bearing more than 25,000 signatures that was presented to Cuba's National Assembly in 2002.

The Varela Project proposes calling a referendum on amending Cuban laws to introduce freedom of expression and association, a general amnesty for political prisoners, free elections and more leeway for private enterprise.

At the trials in 2003, 75 dissidents were given sentences of up to 28 years following speedy convictions on charges of conspiring with the United States, jeopardizing the independence of the Cuban state and undermining the principles of the revolution.

The wave of repression triggered harsh international criticism and a mild "hardening" of European Union policy toward the Fidel Castro regime, a move that led to a bilateral diplomatic crisis that only came to an end in January.

The Cuban government has so far released only 14 of the jailed dissidents, alleging health reasons