HAVANA, January 12 (Mery Miranda, Cuba Press) - The trial of independent Cuban journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo has been set for tomorrow, January 13, in Pinar del Río. Arroyo is accused of hoarding toys.
On January 8 a number of agents of the Department of State Security searched Arroyo's home, confiscating 140 toys meant to be distributed among the poorest children in Pinar del Río, Cuba's westernmost province. Up to the time of the confiscation Arroyo had distributed more than 100 toys.
The toys had been legally purchased in the dollar stores that the Cuban government operates to earn hard currency. The dollars came from donations by Cuban exiles for a project called "Three Wise Kings of the Millennium."
The project was conceived as far back as 1992 by Corriente Martiana and consists of distributing toys to needy children throughout Cuba on January 6 of every year. The distribution this year extended beyond that date due to lack of organizational resources, according to Moisés L. Rodríguez
Valdés of Corriente Martiana. Nonetheless, said Rodríguez Valdés, toy distributions in other parts of Cuba went without a hitch.
Arroyo, a member of the Union of Independent Cuban Writers and Journalists (UPECI), faces a possible three months to a year in jail. Between 1996 and 1998 he spent a year and nine months in jail for "disrespect to the Revolution." |