The air was thick with fear and worry in the sewers where the leaders of the Castro dictatorship reside on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, and they responded by ordering their secret police to round up as many potential troublemakers as they could.
A preliminary report posted online this morning lists the names of 83 Cuban dissidents who were detained by police to block them from using the day to demand human rights be recognized and respected on the island.
Of those, 58 were arrested and held for several hours, and 25 were held under house arrest, according to the unofficial Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
There is no way of knowing for sure, but the actual number of arrests and detentions is likely to be much higher. It is difficult for activists to gather and communicate the numbers, and it's not like the Cuban police issues press releases every time it arrests a dissident.
The good news is that for every Cuban who was blocked from marching for human rights or gathering with like-minded countrymen, there were others meeting in homes and street corners to demonstrate for human rights in Cuba. Scroll through Web sites like Miscelaneas de Cuba, and you will see the evidence that the struggle for liberty is growing on the island.
To help put in perspective the magnitude of last week's crackdown, consider this:
EIghty-three people arrested in Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, is the equivalent in the United States, with a population of 304 million, of 2,253 Americans.
You may not have heard about what happened in Cuba last week, but just imagine if something similar — 2,253 arrests to block Americans from exercising their freedom of expression — had happened here.
Would you have cared then?
For the list of the names of Cuban dissidents arrested Thursday, go here.
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