``It is a courageous struggle that is being waged by ordinary Cuban citizens -- lawyers, economists, journalists, farmers -- who are exceptional in their commitment to democracy and the protection of fundamental rights for the Cuban people,'' said the single-paged statement issued by department spokesman James Rubin.
It cited in particular the arrest on Monday of Raul Rivero, 51, an independent journalist and CubaPress founder and the July 16 arrests of Rene Gomez Manzano, Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque and Felix Bonne, all accused of engaging in ``enemy propaganda.''
Rivero was released in Havana Friday afternoon and told the Spanish news agency EFE that no charges had been filed against him.
``This was another means of trying to threaten me into quitting independent journalism or even leaving the country,'' Rivero said.
He said he had been interrogated for three days in a house owned by the Interior Ministry in the Havana residential neighborhood of Siboney by security agents who treated him respectfully. The agents told him they had wanted for some time ``to hold this kind of conversation with me because everything I was doing, according to them, was illegal.''
``I was able to give my opinions, too, about what I understand
independent journalism to be in Cuba, serious and professional
journalism,'' Rivero said.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald