Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations...

Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations envoy to look into accusations of human rights abuses on the island following the most severe crackdown in decades on opponents of President Fidel Castro. In the space of a month, despite widespread international criticism, Cuba had rounded up 75 dissidents and imprisoned them for terms of up to 28 years in an effort to stamp out pro-democratic opposition to Castro. Cuba also shocked human rights organizations with the execution by firing squad of three men who hijacked a Havana Bay ferry in a failed bid to cross the Florida Straits to the United States.