Cuba Should Stop Detaining Opponents, Rights Group Says

Cuba Should Stop Detaining Opponents, Rights Group Says
Published August 02, 2012
FoxNews.com

Human rights group Amnesty International called upon Cuba Thursday to
stop detaining government opponents.

The group pointed to the release of José Daniel Ferrer García, the
coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, who was detained for two
days after being arrested in Holguín. Authorities didn't charge Ferrer
with a crime.

The latest arrest and short-term detention of José Daniel Ferrer
García continues the Cuban authorities' cat-and-mouse game with
political dissidents and human rights activists

- James Burke of Amnesty International

It wasn't the first time Ferrer had landed in jail. He was detained for
three days in February and again for 27 days on charges of "public
disorder" two months later, according to Amnesty International.

"The latest arrest and short-term detention of José Daniel Ferrer García
continues the Cuban authorities' cat-and-mouse game with political
dissidents and human rights activists," said James Burke of Amnesty
International.

The government does not release information about the detentions of
political dissidents, which the Communist authorities call common
criminals and accuse of being supported by Washington.

The Castro government released most of the political prisoners on the
island in 2011 in a deal brokered by the Catholic Church and the Spanish
government, though it obligated all but a handful of them to emigrate to
Spain as a condition of release.

Since then, human rights watchdogs have criticized the Cuban government
for detaining government opponents for short periods of time.

"Raul Castro's government has increasingly relied on arbitrary detention
to harass and intimidate individuals who exercise their fundamental
rights," Human Rights Watch said in its 2012 World Report.

Cuban authorities reportedly arrested several dissidents who attended
the funeral of opposition leader Oswaldo Payá, who died in a car crash
last month.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/08/02/cuba-should-stop-detaining-opponents-rights-group-says/