Cuba A Visit with Cuba's Persecuted
The "Damas de Blanco" (Ladies in White) march every Sunday after church on Quinta Avenida in the Havanna's elegant Miramar district to demand the release of their husbands and sons. A total of 75 dissidents were sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison in spring 2003.
Oswaldo Paya Cuba's most famous dissident. He is the founder of an opposition Christian liberation movement and also started the Varela project. Twice now, his group has collected the 10,000 signatures required under Cuban law to hold a required national referendum on the country's political system. In both instances, those signatures were ignored by the Castro regime.
Jaime Leygonier works as a freelance journalist in Havana. He writes short news items for the Miami-based Web site Cubanet.org, which is blocked in Cuba.
