Cuba lashes out at "Ladies in White"

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba launched a blistering attack on the wives of imprisoned dissidents on Tuesday, accusing them of working with its arch-enemy, the United States, to subvert one-party socialist rule.

The women, known as the "Ladies in White", have staged an unprecedented series of small demonstrations since their husbands were arrested in a political crackdown in 2003 that landed 75 dissidents in prison on charges of working for the U.S. government. Fifty-five remain behind bars.

On Monday, 10 of the women staged a sit-in next to Havana's Revolution Square to demand that President Raul Castro's government release their relatives. They were detained, put on a bus and driven home by police.

A government statement carried by Cuba's official media attacked the women's protest for being a "provocation ... ordered by their Yankee masters".

State-run television showed photos of the women meeting with Michael Parmly, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which a commentator called "the headquarters of the Cuban counterrevolution."

Havana denies there are any political prisoners in Cuba and labels all opponents as "mercenaries" on the U.S. payroll.

The "Ladies in White," who earned their name by marching silently every Sunday along a Havana boulevard dressed in white, were unfazed by the government attack.

"We were born out of government repression and we have no particular political agenda," said one of their founders, Miriam Leiva. "Our objective is purely humanitarian, to free the prisoners of March 2003."