By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – When activist Marta Beatriz Roque led one of the largest illegal gatherings of Cuban dissidents in decades, nothing happened.

But when Oscar Biscet lay down in the street a few weeks ago and yelled, "Freedom for political prisoners!" he was promptly arrested.

Days before the Cuban revolution's 44th anniversary on New Year's Day, the country's bedraggled political dissidents are as frustrated as they are confused by the
government's ever-changing tactics.

One day, dissidents scratch tooth and nail for that rare victory. The next day, they are hit with harassment, detention and jail time as they struggle to bring change to
the Western hemisphere's last one-party state.

Sowing confusion

"We're all confused," said Raúl Rivero, a veteran dissident journalist who has tangled with Fidel Castro's supporters for decades.

That, some say, is what authorities want – to keep the dissidents guessing; to squeeze, then let up.

That's certainly what happened this month.

The squeeze came Dec. 6 when authorities detained Mr. Biscet and more than a dozen others in Havana. They were about to meet to talk about a project to form
neighborhood opposition groups, called "Friends of Human Rights."

When police arrived, the activists lay down in the street in protest and urged the release of political prisoners.

They were hauled to jail.

Mr. Biscet had just been released from prison Oct. 31 after serving three years for hanging a Cuban flag upside-down and committing other anti-government acts.
This time around, family members aren't sure what charges, if any, will be filed against him, said his wife, Elsa Morejón.

On Dec. 10, authorities made an unusual concession: They allowed more than 50 activists to meet in Havana to mark the anniversary of the creation of the United
Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ms. Roque, a prominent dissident, said similar meetings were held throughout the island, the first simultaneous gatherings of so many activists.

Authorities haven't been so tolerant in past years. In December 2000, for instance, police arrested about 200 people to keep them from commemorating the day.

Ms. Roque said state security agents this year warned her before the gathering that participants should "maintain discipline." She took that as approval for the event.

"Some opposition groups have earned more space to operate, mostly those of us who have been in prison," said Ms. Roque, who served jail time after helping write
a document calling for political and economic reforms.

In another concession, the Cuban government in December allowed activist Osvaldo Payá to go to France to receive the European Union's top human-rights award.

Mr. Payá leads the Varela Project, a petition drive that aims to bring about moderate economic and political reforms. He and his supporters have collected more
than 11,000 signatures so far.

Many human-rights activists call Mr. Payá's Varela project the most important civic movement to emerge in Cuba in more than four decades. And it has the support
of U.S. and European officials and others.

"Payá has captured the excitement of the exile community," said Joe Garcia, director of the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful anti-Castro group
based in Miami.

Blaming outsiders

Cuban officials say outsiders shouldn't meddle in their affairs. They add that there is no homegrown political opposition in the country. Rather, they contend, it has
been financed and "manufactured" by the U.S. government.

American officials deny that.

Exiles, on the other hand, tout their efforts to help Cuba's opposition. In July, for instance, the Cuban-American National Foundation reported that it had sent some
$1 million in aid to the families of political prisoners on the island.

Dissidents last year estimated there were about 250 political prisoners in Cuban jails, down from 314 the year before.

Those who are not imprisoned are often subjected to harassment, according to a 2002 State Department report on human rights.

"At government instigation," the report said, "members of state-controlled mass organizations, fellow workers, or neighbors of intended victims are obliged to stage
public protests against those who dissent from the government's policies, shouting obscenities and often causing damage to the homes and property of those targeted;
physical attacks on the victims sometimes occur."

Before Mr. Payá went to France to pick up the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, anonymous callers threatened to kill him and his family, and someone
smashed the door of his home and plastered bumper stickers of an anti-Castro paramilitary group on the walls.

Prisoners are often worse off, especially around the holidays, Ms. Roque said, because family members can't be together. But dissidents often mark the holidays with
quiet prayers for those who are behind bars, she said.