Cuba cracks down, rounds up dissidents before freeing most

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

HAVANA (AFP) — Cuba this week rounded up and detained more than 30 dissidents after accusing the United States of "instigating" opposition to the Communist regime, a top rights activist told AFP Saturday.

As many as 35 people were arrested and around 70 targeted in all, but most have now been freed, economist Martha Beatriz Roque of the rights group Agenda for the Transition said.

The regime's roundup was aimed at halting a meeting of pro-democracy advocates and clamping down on the dissidents' plan to mark the US Independence Day holiday on July 4th, she said.

"Almost all the people arrested have now been freed," she said.

Those who were not detained received warnings from the government, were placed under house arrest or barred from traveling to...