HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (Ana Aguililla / www.cubanet.org) – Independent journalists taking a course from Florida International University hoped to avoid detention by police this week by leaving the U.S. Interests Section in group, but two of them were detained.

State Security agents took Rafael Rodríguez and Reinier Vera to a police station for questioning on Tuesday, telling them they’d be released in an hour or so.

Since the beginning of the year, agents have been detaining journalists following the weekly classes on journalism delivered y videoconference. The journalists thought that by leaving in a group they’d make detentions more difficult to carry out.

Leading dissident forced to remain at home.

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (Ana Aguililla / www.cubanet.org) – The Liberal Unity Party (Unidad Liberal de la República de Cuba) says one of its directors has been placed under house arrest by police.

Party vice-president Orlando Martínez said Pablo Silva, who’s also president of the Democratic Solidarity Party (Partido de Solidaridad Democrática), was told by two Communist Party members who went to his home in Playa Baracoa, Havana province, on March 17 that he was not allowed to leave the residence.

“I’m prepared to spend years in this situation,” Silva said.