Cuban Arrested During Papal Mass Back in Jail

HAVANA TIMES, April 18 — Cuban authorities have again jailed opposition figure Andres Carrion Alvarez, who was arrested on March 26 for shouting “Down with Communism” during the Mass officiated by Pope Benedict XVI in Santiago de Cuba.

Another opposition leader, Elizardo Sanchez (head of the Cuban Human Rights Commission of National Reconciliation), in letter of protest sent to the AP news agency said that Carrion “was jailed again on Monday, April 16, shortly after noon, in the city of Santiago de Cuba.”

The letter doesn’t detail the reasons for the arrest of the dissident, 38, who recently had been released after being restrained by security agents, allegedly struck by a person wearing a Red Cross emblem, and imprisoned for 18 days on charges of “disorderly conduct.”