First group of Cuban dissidents tried in crackdown sentenced

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro's government dealt a crippling blow to Cuba's opposition movement Monday, sentencing peaceful activists, journalists and an economist to up to 27 years in prison for allegedly collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine the socialist state.

Prosecutors sought life sentences for the dissidents, who were among 80 facing closed trials that began Thursday. It was unclear how many dissidents were sentenced Monday.

Opposition political party leader Hector Palacios, among those originally recommended for a life sentence, received 25 years, said his wife, Gisela Delgado.

"This is an injustice," Delgado said after leaving the courthouse. "We are as Cuban as members of the Communist Party."

The communist government accuses the dissidents of being on Washington's payroll and collaborating with U.S. diplomats here to harm Cuba and its economy. In many trials, undercover government agents who infiltrated opposition ranks revealed their true identities to testify against dissidents.

The crackdown ended several years of relative government tolerance for the opposition. It began when Cuban officials criticized the head of the American mission in Havana, James Cason, for actively supporting the island's opposition.

"This is an attempt for them to squash down and put the policemen back in the person's head that many of the Cubans were getting out of their head," Cason said in a speech at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., on Monday.

'Where's the beef?'

"This is an attempt to instill fear in people. Anywhere else in the world, people would say, 'Where's the beef? What have they done wrong?'"

Cason said journalists were being punished for having such books as "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson, and others written by Groucho Marx and Stephen King.

"They're books that they themselves allowed us to bring in for years and years," Cason said.

Cason denied Cuban government accusations that the U.S. mission had local dissidents on its payroll, saying the mission operates no differently than embassies in other countries.

"Change will come to Cuba. In fact, it is already under way," Cason said. "Cubans will decide how the Cuba of tomorrow takes shape, and more importantly, the role that each and every Cuban will have in it."

Independent journalist Raul Rivero received the 20-year sentence sought by prosecutors, family members said.

"This is a crime for a man who has only written the truth," said Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes.

Dissident economist Marta Beatriz Roque and independent journalist Oscar Espionsa Chepe, who wrote critical articles about the Cuban economy for Web sites run by exile groups in Miami, each received 20-year sentences, relatives said.

A list of 36 sentences confirmed thus far by the nongovernmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation showed the longest thus far was 27 years for independent journalist Omar Rodriguez Saludes. A familiar figure in the dissident community, Rodriguez Saludes often rode his bicycle to news conferences, a camera dangling from a strap around his neck.

"We are living a sharp increase in intolerance and persecution, marked by the detentions and summary trials for opponents or dissidents," read a statement by lay Roman Catholics from the western province of Pinar del Rio.

The statement from the Pinar del Rio Diocesan Council of Laymen said the kind of heavy sentences being sought for the dissidents "should never be applied to anyone for thinking or acting peacefully in a different way."

The last trials were expected to end Monday, with all sentences being announced before the end of this week.

Among those being tried in Havana on Monday was Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a dissident physician jailed since December after his arrest during a protest in nearby Matanzas Province. Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year sentence.

He already served three years for displaying national flags upside down in an act of civil disobedience.

The crackdown on dissidents has been condemned by international human rights groups and press organizations. The State Department said the proceedings amounted to a "kangaroo court."

"The Castro government is persecuting journalists for acting like journalists. They're persecuting economists for acting like economists, and peaceful activists for seeking a solution to Cuba's growing political and economic crisis," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

Those arrested in last month's crackdown include more than two dozen independent journalists, leaders of independent labor unions and opposition political parties, as well as pro-democracy activists involved in a reform effort known as the Varela Project.