Dialogue. At the end of a stick.

The following is how castro, who, as author Laura Restrepo puts it, "is the best thing to ever happen to the Americas," treats those with differing opinions:

1) Home of independent union leader raided by security agents

HAVANA, August 23 (Ariel Delgado Covarrubias / www.cubanet.org) - State security agents on Saturday raided the apartment of Maybell Padilla, assistant secretary general of the dissident Unitarian Council of Cuban Workers.

Two agents seized a fax machine, documents, foreign newspapers and some money from the apartment.

Padilla was taken to the police station where she was warned that charges could be leveled against her in the future.

Padilla has been running the union since the arrest in 2003 of Pedro Pablo Álvarez Ramos, currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

2) Human rights activist says young communist leader beat him up

HAVANA, August 23 (José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - René Montes de Oca, president of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba, says Hassán Pérez Casabón, second secretary of the Union of Young Communists, kicked him in the head as he lay defenseless on the ground.

Montes de Oca has been held in custody since July 13 as a result of arrests carried out of those who were commemorating the sinking of the tugboat "13 de Marzo." The incident with Communist leader occurred when a pro-government crowd attacked Montes de Oca and others who were at the ceremony.

Montes de Oca is among dissidents being held pending charges of public disorder.

3) Santa Clara dissident beaten and detained

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, August 23 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Dissident pacifist Freddy Martín Fraga was beaten in his home in front of his 11-year-old son last week.

Martín Fraga said he was about to take his son to a nearby swimming pool when some 20 men came to his home and attacked for what he said was his opposition to President Fidel Castro.

Martín Fraga is vice coordinator of the Christian Democratic Movement in Cuba, and the father of three minor children. He is being held in a cell at police headquarters.

Posted by Val Prieto at August 24, 2005 04:47 AM

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