Distributed by The Cuba Free Press Project.

Havana, December 24, 1997, Cuba Press

POLICE REPRESSION IN MANZANILLO. By Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso, Cuba Press.

"I don't believe in the Pope or in anything", is what the State Security Major stated while demanding to see opposition leader Manuel de Jesus Reina Castillo, 50 years old, in the city of Manzanillo.

Reina Castillo is the delegate for the eastern region for the Pro Human Rights Party, a member of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation.

A political police major went to the apartment of Artilio Antunez Fuentes, 57 years old, vice president of the Pro Human Rights Committee in La Demajagua, and a resident of building 55, ICP neighborhood in Manzanillo, a place known as La Cava, looking for Manuel de Jesus Reina. According to a dissident source who contacted Cuba Press said that the officer was very aggressive, threatening, even saying obcenities.

In a different incident, Rafael Fuentes Escalona, 32 years old, an activist for the Pro Human Rights Committee La Demajagua, was intercepted by the sector chief for the national police in the Recreo neighborhood, some 3 km from Manzanillo. The opposition member's car was searched and nothing illegal was found inside.

"It doesn't matter, David, wherever I see you, I'll search your car again". Said the officer.

The end. By Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso, Cuba Press.