Fidel Castro considers these folks to be dangerous. In March 2003, his government arrested seventy-five members of various opposition movements, including independent librarians and journalists. The groups had been infiltrated by the "Agents of State Security." All those arrested were found guilty in May of that year and most were sentenced to twenty years or more. Two of the men who were arrested were Hector Palacious, a librarian and member of an umbrella group, Todos Unidos, who received a twenty-five year sentence and internationally known poet and journalist, Raul Rivero, sentenced to twenty years.

I found that info at the back of a novel I just finished by Barbara Parker called "Rage of Suspicion."

She also tells about her inspiration for the book: In 1998, a married couple, Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, who founded Bibliotecas Independientes de Cuba (Independent Libraries of Cuba) were at a book fair, when they heard Castro say, "In Cuba there are no prohibited books, only those we do not have the money to buy." So, they took him at his word and started the Feliz Varela Library in their home, as well as supervised the opening of a dozen other home libraries within nine months.

In 1999, they were evicted from their home and had their books and personal papers taken from them amid much harassement and threats by the government. In 2001, the USA granted them political asylum. They and their children came here that year.

My grandpa wouldn't have thought much good of a government that might've taken his home lending library and evicted him for having it back in the 1890s!