25-Jan-2001 -- EWTN
News Brief
HAVANA, (CWNews.com) - The vicar general of the Archdiocese of Havana made
an unprecedented visit on Wednesday to see two prominent Czechs who were
arrested after meeting with dissidents.
Msgr. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes visited the Villa Marista detention center
after an appeal by Cardinal Miloslav Vlk of Prague. "The Cuban authorities
gave a positive response to the Cardinal's request for a visit to the detainees,
and so Msgr. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes was able to visit them at 10 am (1500
GMT) this morning," Cuban Catholic spokesman Orlando Marquez said.
The two men, Ivan Pilip a former finance minister and now a parliamentary
deputy, and ex-student leader Jan Bubenik, were arrested last week in the
central province of Ciego de Avila, and seem likely to be tried by Cuba for
helping "counter-revolutionaries."
Pressure on Cuba's Communist government over the case of the Czechs is
growing, particularly from Europe. The head of the 41-nation Council of Europe's
parliamentary assembly wrote to Fidel Castro on Wednesday demanding their
release. "I strongly protest against the alleged reasons for and the
conditions of their detention," Lord Russell-Johnston, the parliament's
president, said in the letter.
Havana has alleged that the pair, on the instructions of anti-Castro groups
in the United States, violated their tourist status by having "subversive
contacts" and handing over unspecified "resources" to dissidents.
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