Without commentary, via Cubanet:

Man's choice: abandon wife or house

HAVANA, Cuba - May 29 (Roberto Santana Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) - Juan Carlos Linares has run afoul of Cuba's bureaucracy, and as a result has been fined for cohabiting with his wife.

Linares, who owns a house in Old Havana, said he cannot have his wife move in with him because housing authorities do not allow new residents to move into the historic district.

The wife, then, lives in a house in the Diez de Octubre municipality which, incidentally, she has been trying to buy for the last three years. That is to say, she has been processing paperwork for the purchase of the house for the last three years.

The problem, Linares said, is that if he registers as a resident in Diez de Octubre, he would lose the property in Old Havana.

So he lives with his wife in her house, but since he is not registered as a resident in the district, was fined last October 450 pesos, which by now have doubled to 900 since he hasn't paid.

And he won't pay, he said, even though he could be sent to jail for up to a year if he doesn't.

Linares said authorities have suggested to him that he either separate, at least temporarily, from his wife, that he visit her at night, or that he try not to be seen by any neighbors who could denounce his presence in the district.