Cuba Detains Fewer Dissidents In January

Cuban police detained 178 opposition activists in January, the lowest monthly total in more than four years as Cuba entered talks with the United States to restore diplomatic relations, a dissident human rights organization said on Monday.

The political detentions lasted from two hours to 12 days and were typical of how Cuba represses opponents to its one-party system, the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in its monthly report.

It was the lowest monthly number since September 2010, according to the commission’s records, and compares with a monthly average of 741 last year and 536 in 2013.

Cuba dismisses the dissidents as a tiny minority of provocateurs who are motivated by U.S. payments funneled through non-governmental organizations. The government does not comment on police activity.

“The decrease in the number of short-term detentions compared to the previous 48 months was glaring, but we should continue demanding that the Cuban government end political repression,” the commission said in the report.

Commission leader Elizardo Sanchez was traveling and unavailable for comment. The commission said Cuba detained 8,899 people in 2014, the highest annual number since it began publishing records in 2010, but detentions dropped off in the second half of the year as Cuba and the United States drew closer to their Dec. 17 announcement.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the February 3rd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.