Cuban dissident confirms she received cash from private US anti-Castro group

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A prominent Cuban dissident acknowledged Tuesday she received US$2,400 cash from an anti-Castro group in Miami, but said she had no information about allegations it was carried to Havana by America's top diplomat on the island. Laura Pollan, wife of imprisoned Cuban activist Hector Maseda, said she was given the money by fellow political opposition leader Martha Beatriz Roque and split it with eight other members of a dissident group known as "Ladies In White." Pollan, a retired teacher, said she did not ask Roque where the money came from, and could not comment on the Cuban government's claims that Michael Parmly, head of the US Interests Section, carried funds from the Miami-based Fundacion Rescate Juridica to the island following trips to the United States. Cuba claims the money is meant to undermine the communist government. But Pollan said, "We aren't political. We are fighting for the freedom of our husbands, a sacred right of all families." "We accept support from anyone," she said.