Cuba Frees a Leading Dissident

Cuba’s top female opposition leader and at least two other dissidents were released Saturday, one day after they and more than a dozen others were detained ahead of an anti-government protest.

Martha Beatriz Roque, internationally known for organizing an unprecedented mass meeting of dissidents here in May, was released before dawn.

A government opponent for more than a decade, Roque spearheaded the May 20 meeting of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society that drew about 200 dissidents.

At the time, dissidents and observers expressed surprise that Fidel Castro’s communist government had even allowed the meeting to be held. Several European lawmakers, dissidents and other observers who had hoped to attend were expelled.

After her release, Roque said she would continue her opposition activities. “All members of the assembly agree on going into the streets,” she said.

Two other women detained Friday also were released Saturday, said Elizardo Sanchez, a longtime rights activist.

Cuba’s government has not commented on Friday’s detentions of dissidents who had planned to attend a protest outside the French Embassy.

The U.S. State Department criticized the roundup Saturday, saying the detainees’ only crime “was attempting to exercise their basic human rights and freedoms.”