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INCREASED REPRESSION AGAINST PEACEFUL OPPOSITION MEMBERS. By Mirta Leyva Lopez Chavez, (APIC) The Cuban Independent Press Agency. July 23, 1997.

A great wave of repression has been unleashed by the political police in the town of Manzanillo, since last June, against peaceful opposition members. Some have been arrested, while others have been summoned to the State Security offices. Among them: Leonardo Santana Montes, Enrique Dieguez Segura, Odelia Aguilar Mora, Pascual Escalona Naranjo, Nelson Tamargo, (inaudible), all of them members of the Gulf of Guacanayabo Pro Human Rights Movement. They have been subjected to heavyhanded interrogation sessions at the hands of the authorities, who used coercive strategies, blackmail, and threats.

Officers Mario Escalona, Cesar Sanchez, Eradio Sario, and Ramon Suarez employed such obsolete tactics against the opposition members. During this recent wave of repression, opposition member Pascual Escalona Naranjo was summoned to appear at the 1st Unit of the PNR and report to Lieutenant Ernesto Diaz, who aggressively told him that he would be sanctioned for the crime of "dangerousness" for he represented a great danger to society since this is a country in which there's only one (political) party and only one ideology. He was shown the written charges which he adamantly refused to sign.

We are hereby issuing an alert to the public opinion, nationally and internationally, to these acts which are proof of the increased violation of human rights and hostile acts against peaceful opposition members in Cuba.

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DEPLORABLE HEALTH CONDITIONS AT THE HERMANOS CORDOBE HOSPITAL. July 23, 1997

There is a tragic situation at the children's hospital Hermanos Cordobe, in Manzanillo, where the quality of the food is horrendous, the rice is full of dirt, the beans are hard and poorly cooked, and even the small children don't have milk. The few times they are fed beef or chicken, it is boiled. At this medical center, poor hygiene is rampant due to the clogged up toilets, the bed sheets and pajamas are seldom washed, and there are many flies and cockroaches.

Others factors which worsen the situation are the shortage of water, even drinking water, and the absence of antibiotics, which lead some children to be sent home due to the hospital's shortage of resources.

Sadness, pain, and desperation are expressed by the mothers and families of these small children, because, on top of all this penury, they are forced to listen to the tiresome slogans that healthcare is free, and that in spite of the imperialist embargo, not a single hospital has closed down in Cuba.

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POLICE BRUTALITY CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM. July 23, 1997.

The following story provides proof that, not only human rights are violated, but also the laws which are in the books in this country, as established in the Constitution of the Republic, which states, on Article 57 that: "the physical integrity of the detained, is inviolate".

Last June 14, at approximately 6 a.m., as citizen Jorge Nun~ez Perez while waling in the area of Cafeteria 1906, in this city, three police officers, two of them named Manuel and Wenceslao, respectively, asked him for his idenfitication papers. When Jorge replied that he carried no identification as he had lost it, he was insulted by officer Manuel, who proceeded to handcuff him. The insults and beating continued while he was being transported to the PNR unit. Upon reaching their destination, he was dragged into the office, where they beat him causing a wound in his mouth, damage to his head and side. He was then locked in a dungeon, and medical assistance was denied. Upon hearing the victim's screams, two police officers carried to the policlinic where his wound was sutured and the doctor extended a certificate for the lesions. On the 19th, Jorge Nun~ez was taken to the municipal tribunal to be put on trial without the right to attorneys to represent him, and where the prosecutor's witnesses weren't the ones who had witnessed his arrest. The accused man showed his medical certificate and they paid no attention to his defense, sentencing him to six months of forced labor and loss of freedom for the crime of contempt in Case #231 of 1997.

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STATEMENTS FROM A JOURNALIST. July 23, 1997

APIC's correspondent, for the town of Manzanillo, Mirta Leyva, informed that, since the arrest to which she was subjected last June, as she was traveling to the capital city, where the authorities confiscated several documents and denunciations of human rights violations, there has been a marked increase in the harassment against her at the hands of the political police in her town. She has been threatened with incarceration for the crime of enemy propaganda.

While at the State Security office, instructor Rafael Santos issued her a warning, (and she) was verbally assaulted by Captain Cesar Leiva Sanchez, who, with an arrogant attitude, told her that they had sufficient proofs to charge her with dangerousness. The harassment continued later when they took out some documents which had been confiscated from her, forcing her to repeatedly present herself to the 1st Unit of the PNR and report to Lieutenant Linardo Reyes, Instructor Rafael Santos and Gerardo Sayon, who used coercion methods to create confusion and diminish my dignity. It is necessary for me to point out that this document is being used by the political police to used at (their) will, and this is just one of the many methods employed by State Security, which has unleashed a wide camaign of defamation and have involved people who have echoed and given wide reach to such lies.

Already on July 9th, she had been arrested at her residence by a police agent and taken to the 1st Unit of the PNR where they locked her up in a room adjoining the dungeons, being forced to stay there for six hours, surrounded by dangerous men. Later, Mirta Leiva Lopez Chavez continues "I was taken to the office of the Instructor of the DTI, a man named Leonardo Martillo, who took some handwriting samples and later set me free.

All of these tactics put in evidence the modus operandi of State Security who, making used of their old tactics, seek to denigrate the human condition of all of those who express truth about this government of lies, using maneuvers, fabricating causes, since the penal code in effect in Cuba offers them a wide margin to do that. But my informative work will not stop on account of this. I know full well that the political police is seeking to silence my voice and take me to jail, and that I have two young children. If I have to perish in the struggle, they will understand that this is the price that I have had to pay so that, in the future, their rights will be respected, and they will be able to live in a free Cuba, where they won't have to fear expressing their views and they will be able to develop as free human beings and masters of their destinies.

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