Upsurge in Political Arrests in July

HAVANA, 6 August (Monike de Motas) - The number of politically related arrests in Cuba reached an almost record-breaking rate during the month of July, with 83 detentions and arrests of members of opposition and human rights groups.

This number of arrests in one month is lower only than last year's large-scale operative against members of the Cuban Council, [where over a hundred opponents were arrested].

The notable increase in detentions by the political police, which took place mostly in the second half of the month, was connected only in part to the official commemorations of the 26th of July [anniversary of Fidel Castro's first armed attack of his guerrilla campaign] and to the World Festival of communist youth held in Havana. Though dissidents expect preventive detentions during politically significant propaganda events, they link these arrests more directly to the recent bombings of tourist hotels in Havana.

During most of the police operatives, State Security agents did not search for politically sensitive printed materials, as is usually their procedure, but rather searched homes for containers which could contain traces of chemical compounds.

The raids at the homes of Mario Remedio de los Cuetos (24th of February Movement), Rafael Santiago (Cuban Orthodox Renovation Party) and Aida Valdes

Santana (Political Prisoners' Coordinate), for example, were characterized by searches for anything that could remotely link the activists to a bombing. Medicine bottles, cooking containers, beverage bottles and any glass containers found in the homes were thoroughly analyzed.

The desperation with which the searches were carried out among so many dissidents' homes leads some in the opposition to assume that the government has no real leads as to who is perpetrating the terrorist acts.