The father of one of the crew members said the boat was seized around 1:00 am (0500 GMT) as it was ferrying passengers between various neighborhoods along the Havana bay. "Fifteen or 16 people boarded the boat and forced the crew to head to the open seas," Gilberto Vargas, he told AFP. "Most likely they asked to go to Miami," 350 kilometers (220 miles) away, he said, speaking at the docks, before he was escorted to a police car. ***
Accusations that the detainees engaged in treason and are mercenaries "only show the repressive nature of the Castro regime and its fear of any sign of opposition to its ironclad rule," Roberto Zimmerman, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Latin America bureau, said in Washington on Wednesday. The Cubans "are being tried for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association," said Zimmerman.
The roundup followed several years of relative government tolerance for dissidents. During that time, the opposition grew stronger, more organized and more daring. Those arrested included independent journalists, directors of non-governmental libraries, members of opposition political parties and volunteers for the Varela Project, a pro-democracy petition drive.***