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Cuba detains 22 dissidents, rights leader says
Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:31 AM BST

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban police detained 22 people, including the three top leaders of a dissident group, apparently to thwart a planned rally for the release of political prisoners on the island, the leader of a rights group said on Friday.

[...]

The detentions appeared to be the most vigorous crackdown on opposition since a March 2003 round-up of 75 dissidents. Those people were later sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in a move by Cuba that was roundly condemned abroad.

There was no comment yet from Cuban authorities on the detentions. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman, asked about the planned opposition rally earlier in the day, repeated the Cuban government's stance that Cuba's small dissident groups are organized and paid for by Havana's longstanding political foe the United States.

The crackdown on Friday was on leaders and members of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, an umbrella group that organized an unprecedented opposition gathering on May 20 in the backyard of Felix Bonne, one of those detained on Friday.

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The two other leaders of the Assembly detained on Friday were Martha Beatriz Roque and Rene Gomez Manzano.

Sanchez said that the detentions took place in the morning before the planned rally and people were either detained in their homes or in the street.

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With stepped-up police patrols in Havana, militant supporters known as rapid deployment brigades were bused to neighborhoods of several dissidents who could not leave their homes.

Dozens of Castro supporters gathered outside the house of Assembly member Silvio Herrera in colonial Old Havana, chanting "Viva la Revolucion" and "Viva Fidel."

"They did not let me leave the house. Some had sticks and bars wrapped in paper," Herrera said.

[...]

Cuba this week launched a campaign of civil vigilance in the streets by neighborhood watch groups known as committees to defend the revolution.