Cuba's new crackdown

Once again, Cuba is detaining dissidents and charging them with crimes that don't exist in any free country on Earth.

Some might tire of hearing the same old news, as if jailing people for peacefully criticizing an abusive government is normal. We tire of the dictator who continues to violate the human rights of Cubans and yet is courted like a rock star in parts of this region.

René Gómez Manzano, Oscar Mario González and Julio César López deserve better. The three prominent Cuban dissidents were arrested before they even had a chance to make it to a pro-democracy protest. Now they are being prosecuted under the same law used to punish 75 peaceful dissidents with lengthy prison terms in 2003.

Media throughout the world took notice of that crackdown, and calls to release the political prisoners rained down on the Cuban regime. Last year, the regime released 14 of those 75 prisoners, and the European Union rewarded it by lifting sanctions it had imposed because of the crackdown. The regime, though, hasn't changed its stripes.

Now Messrs. Gómez, González and López are among the 15 activists detained in connection with two peaceful protests in July. Their charges allege that they were involved in causing a ''public disorder.'' In reality, pro-government mobs were the ones beating on the dissidents.

Mr. Gómez already has served three years in prison for co-writing The Homeland Belongs to Us All, a critique of Cuba's one-party rule. Mr. González is a respected independent journalist. Mr. López is a pro-democracy militant with an independent library. Their ideas are dangerous only to a regime built on repression and lies.

Once again, the world needs to take note and call for their release. Send a message to the Cuban regime from the Human Rights First website: http://www.humanrights first.org/index.html