Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HAVANA22904
2006-11-03 14:06:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

CUBAN GOVERNMENT TARGETS OPPOSITION YOUTH LEADERS

Tags:  PHUM KDEM SOCI CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8908
RR RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHUB #2904 3071406
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 031406Z NOV 06
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0270
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 022904 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN GOVERNMENT TARGETS OPPOSITION YOUTH LEADERS


Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 022904

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN GOVERNMENT TARGETS OPPOSITION YOUTH LEADERS


Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: The Cuban Government briefly detained
opposition youth leader Edgard Lopez Moreno and two other
dissidents on November 2 after they visited a USINT internet
center. Police seized materials from Lopez and the others
and warned them to halt their dissident activities. The
detentions came two days after the GOC organized an intense
"act of repudiation" against another opposition youth figure.
The leader of a third opposition youth group has been
incommunicado for four days since failing to attend a
USINT-organized meeting. The GOC's increasing pressure on
opposition youth-group leaders reveals a vulnerability for
the regime. End Summary.


2. (C) Marti Youth Coalition chief Edgard Lopez Moreno and
two other dissidents, Roberto Santana and Luis Enrique
Rodriguez, were detained for more than two hours on November
2 after visiting a USINT internet center. Lopez, whose
organization is one of three key opposition youth groups
exploring ways to join forces, told us that police took him,
Santana and Rodriguez to a police station near USINT and
confiscated their belongings, including documents and two
short-wave radios. Lopez, 29, said police pointed out that
he had a beautiful blonde daughter and that he should be
careful.


3. (C) Another opposition-youth leader, Ahmed Rodriguez
Albacia of Young People Without Censorship, was subjected to
an intense "act of repudiation" in Holguin on October 31.
Rodriguez's mother told us her son went to Holguin to visit
his grandmother but was surrounded by approximately 100
communist militants who seized his money (more than 100 USD)
and forced him to leave the city. The following day,
elsewhere in Holguin province, Rodriguez was subjected to
another act of repudiation, his mother said. Meanwhile, the
chief of a third opposition youth group, Nestor Rodriguez
Lobaina of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, was
incommunicado after failing to appear for an important
dissident-youth meeting on October 31. Attempts to contact
him were unsuccessful.

COMMENT
--------------


4. (C) The Cuban Government's increasing pressure on
opposition youth-group leaders reveals a vulnerability for
the regime, and shows the GOC's keen interest in preventing
the emergence of a unified youth-dissident front. Despite
detentions and the deployment of rent-a-thugs, dissident
youth-group leaders are strongly enthusiastic about working
together to push for common objectives, such as the
liberation of all political prisoners. USINT has seen strong
turnout at recent youth-group meetings. We are helping the
groups in a variety of ways, and will report further as their
plans evolve.
PARMLY