Ex-political prisoner threatened with seizure of his farm

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct. 30 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra, Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org) Former political prisoner Ángel Frómeta was ordered to appear in court Monday to prove that the 125 acres he inherited from his father legally belong to him.

A commission from the Agriculture Ministry recently visited his farm and threatened to confiscate it until he produced a title. When he refused, he was cited to appear.

“I told them that I am an independent farmer from Santiago de Cuba who belongs to a cooperative and whose land was inherited from his father, so they’re mine,” he said.

Dissidents protest colleague’s removal from Banes

HOLGUÍN, Cuba, July 9 (María Antonia Hidalgo / www.cubanet.org) Dissidents in Banes in Holguín province congregated in front of the headquarters of the National Revolutionary Police after one of their human rights colleagues, Ezequiel Morales, was arrested.

According to Marlon Martorell, president of the College of Independent Teachers in the eastern region, Morales had been detained on several occasions.

Dissident arrested in front of his children

HAVANA, Cuba, August 6 (Odelín Alfonso Torna , www.cubanet.org) -Dissident Carlos Ojeda, a member of the November 30 party, was arrested early Wednesday by two plainclothed agents who took him away in a jeep from the National Revolutionary Police.

“They tried to forcibly take away his cell phone in front of his children,” said his wife, Liset Gutierrez

She assumed that the detention was to prevent her husband to participate in a protest held every August 5 on the Malecón since 1994.

Dissidents fined when ID returned

HAVANA, Cuba, August 11 (Ana Aguililla / www.cubanet.org) Brothers William and Eddy Rodríguez of the dissident February 24 Movement were fined 30 pesos each, the equivalent of nearly a month’s average salary, when they picked up their indemnity cards, which had been seized by police last week.

The brothers were detained by police August 5 in San José de Las Lajas in Havana province. They were released the same day but their identity cards weren’t returned.

The police orders them to return to the police station where the cards were handed back. No explanation was given for the fines.

Pastor threatened because of association with dissidents

HAVANA, Cuba, August 31 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) Baptist pastor José Carlos Pérez says he has been warned not to preach against the government.

Pérez, who graduated from the Baptist Seminary of Cuba in 1991, said he was forced by the Baptist hierarchy to leave the Cárdenas parish church in Matanzas province after criticizing several protestant denominations for remaining silent about human rights violations in Cuba.