About 140 Cuban dissidents were arrested Tuesday as they were going to attend a Mass at the Lady of Caridad del Cobre Church to celebrate the feast day of the island’s patron saint, sources within the dissident movement told EFE.

“Most of the arrests occurred in the early morning hours (on Tuesday) some kilometers from the El Cobre Church, at a spot known as La Tanqueta” in eastern Santiago de Cuba province, said the general coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, or UNPACU, opposition group, Jose Daniel Ferrer.

In all, some 120 UNPACU members were arrested along with about 20 women affiliated with the Ladies in White dissident movement, according to Ferrer, who said that the Cuban authorities’ motive was to “prevent them from attending the traditional Mass for the feast day of the patron saint of Cuba.”

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