HAVANA, February 1 (Alida Viso Bello, Cuba Press) - Two presumed officials at the "Antonio Maceo" airport in Santiago de Cuba searched dissident leader Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina on Saturday and tried to implicate him in a drug trafficking conspiracy. Rodríguez
Lobaina, 34, is the president of the Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement and is promoting a project to reform university education in the country.
The pair, dressed in official's uniforms, intercepted Rodríguez Lobaina and took him to a bathroom, searched him and tried to implicate him in transporting a small envelope containing white powder which they said was cocaine. Shortly thereafter, a presumed customs officer with a portable
laboratory showed up, and after a brief analysis, detemined that the powder was not cocaine.
Rodríguez Lobaina, upon arrival at "José Martí" airport in Havana, called customs officials and asked them to search his luggage, fearing that someone in Santiago could have hidden some narcotic in his bags.
No such substance was found, but there were some personal belongings missing, which Rodríguez reported.
About a month ago, Rodríguez Lobaina was taken in a car about 25 kilometers outside of Santiago, and after what the dissident called a "simulated execution" was left by himself in the middle of nowhere.
Rodríguez has served two sentences, one of two years and the other of 18 months, for social dangerousness, resistance, and disrespect to the Cuban leader.
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