Havana meeting ignored threats

 ALFONSO CHARDY

 Despite the presence of state security agents nearby, several dissidents were
 able to hold a rare, well-publicized meeting at a private home in Havana on Friday
 to press for democracy in Cuba on the eve of a summit conference of leaders from
 Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

 The opposition leaders, who seek to replace communism in Cuba with a
 multiparty political system and a market-oriented economy, gathered at the home
 of human rights activist Moises Rodriguez for a ``dissident summit'' where they
 signed a statement titled ``All United,'' urging foreign leaders to support change in
 Cuba.

 ``We ask the international community to support the necessary processes of
 openness in Cuban society and respect for civil rights,'' Elizardo Sanchez, one of
 the key participants, told The Herald in a telephone interview after the two-hour
 meeting.

 The gathering represented an act of peaceful defiance in the face of threats by
 President Fidel Castro to arrest dissidents who try to disrupt the summit meeting
 or steal the spotlight. Participants said their ranks were thinned by a continuing
 round of arrests of anti-government activists across the island.

 While more than 60 opposition activists had been invited to attend, Sanchez said
 only 14 made it because the rest were in the custody of Cuban authorities, under
 house arrest or prohibited from traveling to Havana.

 LEADERS IN CUSTODY

 Among those in custody, he said, were all the members of the meeting's
 organizing committee, including Hector Palacios, who was picked up at sunrise
 Friday. Palacios is a leader of the illegal Democratic Solidarity Party.

 Cuban government officials said the dissidents' gathering was part of an
 opposition effort to undermine the Ibero-American Summit scheduled for Monday
 and Tuesday.

 Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez told reporters in Havana that the
 dissidents were ``staging'' events as part of a ``premeditated plan to sabotage the
 summit.''

 The dissidents' gathering in a neighborhood near Jose Marti International Airport
 underscored a continuing tug of war between Castro and a growing number of
 political foes, a struggle that surfaces every time Cuba hosts a major international
 event.

 When reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Cuba 10 years ago,
 Cuban dissidents attempted to meet and urge him to push Castro to follow
 Gorbachev's example. Many were arrested by state security agents before the
 event could take place.

 SIMILAR ROUNDUP

 A similar roundup of dissidents in the last few days was aimed at preventing them
 from overshadowing Cuban government goals during the Ibero-American Summit.

 Leaders from 21 Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal are expected to
 attend the summit that Cuban officials hope will endorse Cuba's continuing efforts
 to pressure the United States to lift a longtime trade embargo.

 Reporters who covered Friday's ``dissident summit'' said state security agents
 were present outside the house where it took place but did not interfere.

 But Sanchez, head of the Cuban Human Rights and Reconciliation Commission,
 said some witnesses told him the security agents had detained or turned away
 one potential meeting participant just a few blocks away.

 Dissidents who remain free plan to deliver copies of the All United declaration to
 summit participants and their embassies, Sanchez said.

 This report was supplemented with material from Herald wire services.