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Güines
Bus Terminal, on Valdés Street, between Martí and
Concha. Photo by Julián Lauzán, Gainesville,
Florida
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Another view of Güines
Bus Terminal. Photo by Julián Lauzán, Gainesville,
Florida
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Dissidents Who Purchase Toys Are Threatened With Jail
By José Izquierdo, Grupo Decoro (Decorum Group)
Güines, December 24, 2002 (www.cubanet.org)
- Agents from the 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
Cubas 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 Castros
Government a little after reaching power in 1959. Nevertheless, with
the Magi of the Millennium's 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's 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's Province.
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(This information has been transmitted
by telephone because Cubas 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
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