What May be Coming

For a while now, disturbing hints have been coming from Cuban bloggers and independent journalists of an incipient crackdown by the regime. One well known opposition member has likened the current atmosphere to that just shortly before the Black Spring arrests. Not lost on Cubans is the castroite penchant for holding back, even inviting criticism, in order to identify their enemies.

That established, yesterday there was a violent raid on the home of well-known dissident Jorge Luis "Antuñez" Garcia Perez so large that it has actually hit the AP. Perhaps not so co-incidentally, Antuñez was one of the opposition members who spoke to President Bush recently.
The full frontal assault was no doubt intended to send a message, as all were eventually released.

There is an interesting subtext here. 30 people were rounded up in that raid, 30 people who knew they were risking their well being by joining together to remember one of the most symbolic figures in the Cuban struggle for freedom: Pedro Luis Boitel. That more than a dozen or so were together is indicative of the gently swelling numbers of people willing to take a stand against oppression. When the Washington Post recently posted a dismissive story about Cuba Solidarity day referring to a "scattering" of events marking the day, they missed the real story. At least twelve of those were in Cuba itself. With the "Agenda for the Transition" and other similar initiatives, the Cuban opposition is starting to take the first steps toward co-ordinated action.

Marc at Uncommon Sense has the details of the raid and a link to the story of Boitel.