HAVANA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Cuban government has released at least four of eight dissidents who were rounded up two days ago in an apparent bid to prevent protests at religious festivities, opposition sources said on Wednesday.
Police freed the four women, who all belong to small, illegal opposition groups, from a detention centre in Havana and took them to their homes late on Tuesday, the sources said.
``It was a preventative measure to warn us that they are not going to tolerate acts of demonstration,'' one of the women, Ofelia Nardo, vice-president of the Confederation of Democratic Workers, told Reuters.
She and other dissident groups in Cuba confirmed that three other women detained on Monday afternoon -- Vicky Ruiz Labrit, of the Committee of Pacifist Opposition, Miriam Garcia, of the College of Independent Teachers, and Nancy de Varona, of the July 13 Movement -- had also been freed. It was unclear if the other four dissidents who were held, including three men and one woman, were also freed, opposition groups said.
The detained dissidents were all at the Aug. 28 trial of opposition activist Reinaldo Alfaro Garcia which ended with a small but highly unusual and rowdy anti-government demonstration outside the court building.
Opposition figures said Monday's roundup was intended as a warning by Cuba's Communist authorities that such acts would not be tolerated, and to prevent a repetition during this week's public festivities for the Virgin of the Charity of Cobre, the island's most sacred religious icon.
12:04 09-09-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.