'Change' bracelets led to detention, activist says
By Will Weisser
Associated Press
Published: Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 12:00 a.m. MST
HAVANA — Cuban police rounded up a group of young people wearing white
rubber wristbands stenciled with the word "cambio," or "change," and
held them for hours before releasing them without filing charges, a
human rights activist said Thursday.
The detentions, which took place Monday, went little-noticed on the
island but sparked an outcry three days later in Washington, where top
officials and critics of Cuba's communist government said at least 70
youths had been arrested.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human
Rights and National Reconciliation, said an unknown number of young
people were wearing the bracelets when they were detained and taken to a
police station in central Havana.
He said no formal charges were filed and that most of the group was
released after a short time, but that a few may have been held until
early Tuesday. The youths, however, had to relinquish their bracelets,
Sanchez said.
In Washington, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez on Thursday said 70
Cubans were arrested. Gutierrez added that he himself wears the "change"
wristband to support Cubans who want democracy.
"Their unjustified detainment is exactly why Cuba needs change now,"
Gutierrez, a Cuban-American and co-chair of the White House Commission
for Assistance to a Free Cuba, said in a statement. "The Cuban people
deserve an end to these tragedies."
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