Cuban dissidents consider their options
14/07 16:27 CET
A further two Cuban dissidents have arrived in Spain as part of a
prisoner release deal struck between Havana and the Catholic Church.
Seven political dissidents and their families who arrived on Tuesday are
holding meetings with officials to decide the details of their future
lives in exile.
One woman said on euronews that she was happy to see her husband
released from jail, but it was painful to leave behind her homeland.
So far 20 out of 52 prisoners released in Cuba have taken up Spain's
offer of exile.
Asked what he thought about settling in a country going through tough
economic times, dissident Julio Cesar Galvez said every country was in
the same boat. "On the question of whether we stay here in Spain, go to
Miami or somewhere else, regardless of the meeting we have today, there
will have to be consensus among all of us," he added.
Cuba's government took the world by surprise when it agreed last week to
free activists arrested and jailed after a crackdown in 2003.
But released dissident Pablo Pacheco said: "I don't like to speculate
about the end of the (Cuban) regime or see this as a sign of weakness
for the regime. I think Raul Castro can change things in Cuba because he
has the power to do it."
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who was president when the dissidents
were jailed, did not mention the prisoner release when he appeared in a
TV interview earlier this week.
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