Güines Bus Terminal, on Valdés Street, between Martí and Concha. Photo by Julián Lauzán, Gainsville, Florida

Another view of Güines Bus Terminal. Photo by Julián Lauzán, Gainsville, Florida

Dissidents Who Purchase Toys Are Threatened

By José Izquierdo, Grupo Decoro

Güines, December 24 (www.cubanet.org) - Agents from State Security Department (SSD) in San Nicolás de Bari, located in Havana Province, threatened to jail any dissident that would organize acts to commemorate the Epiphany or Day of the Magi next January 6.

On December 19, SSD agents arrested Jorge Luis Restivo Durand and his wife Daidy Padrón Leyva, members of the dissident organization Cuba’s Commission, who were removed from their home and transferred to the headquarters of the local political police where they were interrogated for two hours, and a First Lieutenant whose last name is Massó, Chief of the SSD in San Nicolás de Bari, threatened to incarcerate them with terms between seven to nine years.

“We will suppress any act organized by you on January 6. We know you are collecting funds to buy toys, and this represents an illegal act,” agent Massó told them.

Martha Arocha Pita was also arrested on that day, and they made the same threat to her, being interrogated for more than an hour. Arocha said that a highly placed agent, whose identity she did not know, interrogated her, and warned her that her frequent reunions with dissidents leaders in Güines were very dangerous.

The tradition to celebrate the Epiphany was abolished by Fidel Castro’s Government a little after reaching power in 1959. Nevertheless, with the Magi of the Millennium Project, thousands of Cuban children receive every January 6, toys and sweets donated by civil society organizations in the Island and abroad, as well as by several diplomatic representations accredited in Cuba.

The Magi of the Millennium Project was created by and is directed by Professor Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez Valdés. Víctor Rolando Arroyo, an independent journalist, was jailed because he distributed toys to children in Pinar del Río Province.

This information has been transmitted by telephone because Cuba’s Government does not allow access to Internet by a private citizen. CubaNet does not claim exclusivity from its contributors and authorizes the reproduction of this material as long as it is recognized as its source.

Translated by the staff of Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles.