On Monday, internal security police expelled eight members of the Cuban Democratic Platform from Margarita Island, where they were planning to release a document critical of the Cuban government. Cuban President Fidel Castro is expected to be among the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American leaders attending the Ibero-American Summit Conference that opens Friday on the island off the Venezuelan coast.

The activists were arrested as they met at an apartment in the city of Porlamar and were put aboard a plane for Caracas, where they were released.

The Platform had issued similar statements at each of the six previous summit meetings.

On Tuesday, presidential chief of staff Asdrubal Aguiar described the police action as ``a stupidity,'' while the head of the Central Information Office, Fernando Egaña, called it ``a mistake.''

Writer Carlos Alberto Montaner, one of those expelled from the island, said Tuesday he has received apologies from members of the government.

``I spoke with [Information] Minister Egaña and Justice Minister Hilarion Cardozo, who extended their apologies to me, as did other Venezuelan politicians,'' he said.

`Rambo-style' operation

Montaner described the arrest as ``ridiculous'' and said he and his colleagues were rounded up at gunpoint by helmeted agents in ``a Rambo-style'' operation.

``My impression was that they wanted to deport us, but when the news spread they decided to leave us in Caracas,'' he said.

Montaner lives in Spain. Three of the other activists live in Miami, and the rest in Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Jose Ignacio Rasco, former president of the Christian Democratic Party of Cuba, who was among those seized, called the raid ``a Nazi-fascist attack.''

The agents gave the activists no reason for the roundup, Rasco said, explaining only that they were enforcing ``orders from Caracas.''

Montaner said the group will return to Margarita Island today and proceed with its plan to release a document composed by dissidents in Cuba, demanding a shift to democracy in that country.

In favor of dialogue

The Platform is a coalition of political groups that favor dialogue as a means to peaceful political change in Cuba.

Roberto Fontanillas, president of the Cuban-Venezuelan Democratic Foundation and one of the eight people detained, said the incident grew out of the government's nervousness and the lack of professionalism on the part of the security police.

``When the organs of security are insufficiently trained, they can commit stupidities like this one and embarrass an unquestionably democratic government,'' Fontanillas said.

Cuban-born Fontanillas, who lives in Venezuela and became a Venezuelan citizen in 1967, said he has given Venezuelan authorities a copy of the document the activists plan to release.

Pedro Pablo Aguilar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Policy, said that ``what happened to those peaceful democrats is a shame, as well as a violation of constitutional rights.''

Venezuelan lawmaker Paciano Padron, an independent representative, said he will ask Congress to investigate the behavior of the security agents, to assign responsibility and punish those who engineered the raid.

Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald