Cuban opposition celebrates Mass for missing dissidents

Havana, Cuba, Feb 22, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Members of the opposition to the Castro regime celebrated Mass in Havana this week in memory of all the victims of Communist repression who have never been found.

Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque told AFP that the Mass was for “Cubans who have fallen in the Florida straits,” those who were executed and those who died in prison.

The Mass was celebrated in the Church of the Rosary in Havana and coincided with the opening of the Cuban Memorial in Miami, a cemetery where 11,000 crosses have been planting representing those who have been killed by the Castro regime.

Roque added that the objective was also to express solidarity with Cubans living in Miami and “to tell them that here in Cuba we remember those who have died.”

Roque was one of 74 dissidents sentenced to 20 years in prison on April of 2003, but she was granted a “license” to leave after 15 months for reasons of health.  Nevertheless, she said that if the harassment of her niece by government officials continues, she will demand that the “license” be revoked and her release be permanent as the government has not fulfilled its promise that she would be released “without conditions.” She said Cuban authorities have “no interest in modifying their policies of harassment and oppression.”