Eluding the Cuban government's surveillance, leaders of the dissident coalition Concilio Cubano met in secret Wednesday in Havana to draft their plans for the future.
In a phone call to The Herald, they said that they will wait until the end of this year to ask for the government's permission to hold a national conference. A meeting of Concilio's 130 member groups scheduled for Feb. 24 was canceled after official authorization was denied.
"In view of the repression we're experiencing, we decided to leave the date open," said Gladys Gonzalez Noe, a conference organizer. "If we announce that 'We'll meet on such-and-such a date,' we'll get the same response as in February."
Two months ago, after Concilio announced it planned to hold a conference in Havana, dozens of its members were arrested or confined to their homes. "Our task is serious and we can't allow it to fail," Gonzalez told The Herald. "Since everything we do has a repercussion, we're not going to announce a date. It will be a surprise."
According to Hector Palacios Ruiz, who spoke with a Herald reporter just before the telephone lines went dead, the Concilio decided this week to activate its 15 operative committees.
Earlier, Palacios had told Miami radio station WQBA-La Cubanisima that the Concilio rejected allegations made this week by Cuban diplomats in Geneva that it was managed and funded by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
He also denounced the government's "attempts to link us with terrorist organizations."
This report was supplemented with Herald Wire Services