NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, May 20, 2005

Story Continues Below

  While Castro has not commented publicly on the meeting, earlier this week he compared the dissidents, whom he calls "mercenaries," to militant Cuban exiles he accuses of being terrorists.

Authorities escorted Czech Senator Karel Schwarzenberg and German lawmaker Arnold Vaatz from their hotel to the airport Thursday afternoon. "This is typical behavior of a totalitarian state," Schwarzenberg told The Associated Press from his cell phone as his flight was about to leave for Paris. "I did nothing against the law. They just didn't like the people I was visiting. I'm sure it's in connection with the assembly."

Schwarzenberg served as a chancellor under former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Earlier in the week, authorities refused entry to Polish lawmakers Boguslav Sonik and Jacek Protasiewicz, members of the European Union assembly's conservative European People's Party who planned to attend the assembly.

Still, diplomats from numerous foreign missions in Havana, including the U.S. Interests Section, planned to attend the gathering to be held in the back yard of a prominent dissident's home in Havana.

Castro accuses the U.S. Interests Section of bankrolling the opposition on the island - a charge Washington denies.

Several dozen volunteers were finishing work Thursday on veteran dissident Felix Bonne's yard, where the meeting was planned. Concrete had been poured and bathrooms were built to accommodate a crowd.

"The assembly could be held right now," Carlos Raul Jimenez of the Nationalist Agenda Movement said from the site.

Assembly organizers expected about 500 participants Friday, he said.

It still was not known, however, if the Castro government would allow the meeting to be held. The government also has not commented directly on the deportations and denials of entry in the cases of the European lawmakers.

In a separate setback, the Christian Liberation Movement, led by internationally known dissident Oswaldo Paya, said in a communique it would not attend an event organized by the rival dissident group. The movement issued a statement calling the gathering "a big fraud against the opposition."

The communique accused Martha Beatriz Roque and other assembly organizers of working in concert with Cuban state security members and with the support of Miami-based exiles to the benefit of Castro's government. Paya and Roque long have been at odds.

Telephone calls by the AP seeking comment from Roque and fellow assembly organizer Rene Gomez were not returned Thursday.

Some other dissidents, including several dozen relatives of political prisoners, said in recent days they would not attend the assembly for fear of new arrests.

Roque complained last week that numerous dissidents from Cuba's interior had been summoned to appear at their local police stations the same day as the assembly, and dissidents on Cuba's Isle of Youth were told by authorities they could not travel to Havana for the meeting.

In comparing the dissidents to terrorists, Castro this week mentioned old foe Luis Posada Carriles, who was charged by U.S. immigration authorities Thursday with illegally entering the United States, where he had applied for political asylum.

Venezuela is seeking his extradition for alleged involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

Castro complained that while Posada lived in Miami, the United States was funding groups dedicated to subverting his government.

"This is the empire's answer: money to foment destabilization," he said.

An EU spokesman said the denial of entry to Polish lawmakers would be studied when member states review relations with the island in June. Cuba-EU relations have been tense since a March 2003 roundup of 75 dissidents, including Roque. She is among 14 in the original group since freed on medical parole.

© 2005 The Associated Press

Editor's note:
Fidel Castro and His Shocking Ties to Hollywood – Click Here Now

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Castro/Cuba