The 75 dissidents - many of whom supporters of the...

The 75 dissidents - many of whom supporters of the 'Varela project' that aims to gather signatures for a referendum to propose the introduction of a multi-party system in Cuba - were arrested by Castro's regime on March 18, 2003.
A few days later they were given jail terms ranging from 6 to 28 years in jail on charges such as treason or political conspiracy under the Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy of Cuba, a gag law better known as Law No. 88.
Rivero, ailing economist Martha Beatriz Roque, trade unionist Pedro Pablo Alvarez and journalist Ricardo Conzalez were among those jailed.
Hot on the heels of these arrests, the Cuban government executed three men who had hijacked a ferry-boat in a failed bid to cross the straits to Florida. Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla Garcia and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac were prosecuted and condemned for "very grave acts of terrorism" on April 8. They were shot at dawn on April 11. Their deaths brought to an end three years of de facto moratorium on executions on the island.
The images of repression in Cuba will remain on show in Rome up to October 24, 2004, at the "Borghetto Flaminio", in Piazzale della Marina 32.
The exhibition will then move on to the Czech Republic, Spain, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States.