About 30 members of 'Ladies in White' were stopped as they marched alongside the mother of an imprisoned dissident, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died last month after a hunger strike.
Tamayo has become a rallying point for Cuba's opposition.
The march was the third staged by the 'Ladies in White' opposition movement this week. They are protesting against the 2003 imprisonment of their husbands and sons, most of whom are still in jail. Today (18 March) is the seventh anniversary of the crackdown, known as the 'Black Spring'.
As the 30 or so women walked along carrying flowers, about 200 government supporters marched alongside, separated by security agents.
"Worms, get out of here. Viva Fidel! Viva Raul!" the government supporters shouted, referring to former president Fidel Castro and his brother, current President Raul Castro, the only leaders Cuba has had since the 1959 communist revolution.
For their part, the women shouted "Freedom" and "Zapata lives," in reference to the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
As the pro-government crowd swelled, state security agents repeatedly offered to take the Ladies in White away in a bus, but leader Laura Pollan refused.
Finally, they pulled a bus up and began hauling the women into it, grabbing some by the hair and others by the arms and legs as they screamed in protest. They were driven to Pollan's house in Central Havana.
"They are invading Cuban territory. This street belongs to Fidel," housewife Odalys Puente said of the women.
International condemnation
Cuba has been condemned internationally for Zapata's death and its treatment of another hunger striker, Guillermo Farinas, who has been in a hospital receiving fluids intravenously since he collapsed on Thursday.
Fundora, a former political prisoner, was also said to be in hospital after beginning his hunger strike a week ago.
Cuban dissidents, who are small in number and not well known domestically, say the hunger strikes have refocused international attention on their cause.
The United States and Europe have condemned communist-led Cuba over the hunger strikes and called for the release of its estimated 200 political prisoners.
On 11 March, the European Parliament approved a resolution urging the authorities in Cuba to release all political detainees and prisoners of conscience with immediate effect, and vigorously condemning "the preventable and cruel death" of Orlando Zapata.
The Spanish EU Presidency hopes to review the EU's long-standing position on Cuba but it will have to reach unanimity among the 27 EU member states which are mainly not in favour of such a move (EurActiv 18/01/10).
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
