4 Cuban dissidents go on trial today

By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA -- Magaly de Armas says she knew life would be hard as the wife of one of communist Cuba's best-known dissidents when she wed Vladimiro Roca seven years ago.

``He taught me to be prepared for whatever could happen,'' she said calmly, sitting by the open front door of her living room. ``But I think that he was always better prepared.''

Roca, 56, and three other opposition leaders go on trial today on sedition charges amid a new crackdown on political dissidents. One of the most important human rights cases in Cuba in recent years, the trial is seen as a test of how far the government is willing to bend to international opinion while maintaining its new tough stance toward the opposition.

De Armas said many other dissidents who support the group have been detained by state security agents in recent days, apparently to prevent protests outside the courthouse. Government officials, who never comment on such detentions, were infuriated by a demonstration last year outside the trial of another dissident, which was widely reported by foreign media.

Roca, Rene Gomez Manzano, engineer Felix Bonne and economist Marta Beatriz Roque were leading members of the opposition coalition Concilio Cubano when they were jailed in July 1997 for criticizing a major Communist Party document.

The trial is expected to last several days. It is unknown if journalists will be allowed inside.

De Armas fears that her husband, already held for nearly 20 months, will be sentenced to more time -- or that if he is released, he will be required to leave the country where his father, the late Communist Party leader Blas Roca, remains a beloved figure.

``He doesn't want to leave Cuba. This is his homeland,'' de Armas said. ``He says that outside of his country, he is no one.''

Communist officials insist there are no political prisoners in Cuba, only people jailed for common crimes. They reject the characterization of the four as prisoners of conscience.

When the opposition leaders were charged last fall, the prosecution recommended a six-year sentence for Roca and five years each for the others.

Since then, the government has passed a tough, broadly worded law aimed at silencing dissidents who promote U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba. Those convicted can face up to 20 years in prison.

The four cannot be tried under the new law, but it signals a tougher government stance toward the opposition.

The group's relatives have appealed to world leaders, including King Juan Carlos of Spain, to push for their release. The king had planned to visit Cuba sometime this spring, but has not announced a specific date.

The four dissidents were arrested after distributing a critique of the draft plan for the Cuban Communist Party's Congress. They said the plan focused on the gains of Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution but presented no solutions to the country's severe economic crisis.

They also held two news conferences with foreign journalists -- a daring move for Cuba's generally intimidated dissidents.

At the time, government officials were rattled by a spate of hotel bombings aimed at harming Cuba's nascent tourism industry. Fears were growing about attacks on the nation's economic and political systems.