'People here are very worried'

ARTEMISA, Cuba (AP) --Assailants
entered a home in a village in western Cuba and killed five people, including
four members of a family, apparently by cutting their throats, relatives of the
victims said Saturday.

Such crimes are rare in Cuba. The attack comes nine months after five people,
including a couple from Miami and an 8-year-old boy, were shot and killed in their
car on a road from Havana in a robbery attempt.

The latest attack took place Thursday in a farm outside of Artemisa, about 30 miles
west of Havana.

"It seems that they entered to steal, said Camilo Martin, a cousin of one of the
victims, Osmel Martin. "People here are very worried."

Cuban authorities have released no details about the case. Police and Interior
Ministry officials have the farm sealed off and a ministry official asked reporters to
leave its entrance.

"People want the killers to be caught," said Martin, adding that his cousin had been
the farm's guard and the other victims -- two men and two women -- lived on the
small farm.

Martin identified the other dead as farm owner Felix Chacon; his brother-in-law
Jorge Felix; and his 23-year-old niece, Evelise. He did not know the identity of the
one remaining victim.

  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.