MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba's regime tougher on dissidents

Members of the Cuban opposition expressed concern Wednesday about the possible use of special repressive legislation known as the “Gag Law” - which establishes prison terms of up to 20 years - against at least three recently-arrested dissidents.

Special Law 88, approved in 1999, was used for the first time against most of the 75 opposition members sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in spring 2003, the largest wave of repression against dissidents by the regime of President Fidel Castro.

The Cuban Committee for Human Rights announced Wednesday that the police had told relatives of dissidents Rene Gomez Manzano, Oscar Mario Gonzalez and Julio Cesar Lopez - all of whom were arrested on July 22 - that the three would be prosecuted under the "Law for Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba," as the measure's full title reads.

The three men are linked to the outlawed "Assembly to Promote Civil Society" and are among nine dissidents who remain in jail after their arrests on July 22, when the opposition group staged a demonstration in front of the French Embassy in the Cuban capital to demand the release of Castro's regime political prisoners.

The Gag Law establishes prison terms of between two and 20 years and also includes the possible confiscation of property.

Elizardo Sanchez, leader of the Committee for Human Rights, said that the possible enforcement of the law indicates "an unexpected toughening" on the part of the Cuban authorities.

The day before on the anniversary of the Cuban revolution, July 26, Fidel Castro described the island's political opposition as "non-existent" and called on pro-government citizens to continue their intimidating street demonstrations against all "mercenaries and traitors" who raise their heads.

Castro commented on the incidents of the last few weeks in Havana in the course of his speech on "National Rebellion Day" Tuesday night, commemorating his 1953 attack on Moncada barracks.

The assault was a fiasco, with the attackers slain or captured, as was Castro. He was later released and went into a Mexican exile, and after the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the Moncada foray was presented as the revolution's spark.

In his speech, Castro blasted U.S. President George W. Bush's administration and the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, James Cason.

The July 13 and 22 incidents, as a result of which some 15 dissidents are still behind bars, were "provocations" by "mercenaries and traitors" funded by the United States and its Interests Section, charged Castro.

Those anti-government demonstrators, he added, were "emboldened" by the Revolution's "tolerance" in allowing the illegal Assembly to Promote Civil Society to meet in May.

"This time, the people, outraged by such shameless acts of treason, stepped in with expressions of patriotic fervour and did not allow a single mercenary to move," he said, in reference to the mob actions of government supporters who prevented ?insulting and shoving - several dissidents from attending a meeting called by the Assembly July 22.

"The same thing will happen as many times as necessary, when traitors and mercenaries overstep by one millimetre what the revolutionary people are willing to allow" warned the 78-year-old leader.