Gay disco raided in Havana

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Cuban police raided a gay disco in Havana over the weekend, detaining large numbers of people, according to reporters and news reports Tuesday from Cuba.

The Mexican government's Notimex news agency reported from Havana that more than 800 people were detained at the El Periquiton discotheque late Friday or early Saturday.

There was no official comment on the report.

Notimex said that more than two dozen foreigners were among those detained. It said Cubans were being released after paying a small fine and that foreigners were being released after their documents were checked.

Cuban Communists long derided homosexuality as an illness of the island's capitalist past, and gays and lesbians were once arrested and sent to work camps.

But the government has become increasingly tolerant in recent years, and gays have become more visible in Cuban society.