The European Courier has published an article titled “The Future of Cuba,” which discusses the new role of Cuba in a world in which the US is becoming less dominant (see hypotheses written by Parag Khanna of the New America Foundation and Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International) and is forcing Cuba to form new relationships with the US, the EU and most importantly China.

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Via AFP:

At least eight members of Cuba’s opposition have been taken into custody in a police sweep targeting dozens of government opponents across the Communist island, dissidents here said Thursday.

Leading dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said as many as 40 government opponents have been targeted in the regime’s roundup.

While there were “eight confirmed,” she said, several dissidents in Cuba’s provinces outside of the capital city Havana were unaccounted for. “We don’t know where they are,” she said, fearing they too have been detained.

Elizardo Sanchez, president of an illegal Cuban human right commission, told AFP that among those arrested were Francisco Chaviano, Rene Montes de Oca, Leonardo Bruzon, Julio Cesar Lopez y Emilio Leyva.

“These are arbitrary detentions, and we hope they will be of a short duration,” Sanchez said.

Opposition leader Vladimiro Roca called the sweep “a giant act of repression throughout the entire country,” which targeted above all else dissidents in Havana “because we were planning to hold a meeting here and they did not give permission” for it.

The crackdown comes just days after the European Union decided to formally lift sanctions against Cuba imposed following a 2003 dissident crackdown, although, for its part, the United States administration has kept its sanctions in place and expressed disappointment at the EU decision.

The crackdown in Cuba, if confirmed, suggests that there may be limits to the amount of change the new government under Fidel Castro’s brother Raul, is willing to tolerate, despite ushering in recent widespread reforms.

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