(AFP)
HAVANA — The US diplomatic mission in Cuba has convened a meeting here
with relatives of political prisoners who are refusing an offer to leave
and emigrate to Spain, wives of the jailed dissidents told AFP.
Representatives of the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish embassy
were also to attend the 1:00 pm (1700 GMT) meeting with officials from
US consular services and the mission's refugee section, they said.
"All we know is that they have invited a representative of each prisoner
who has not been contacted by the church or who have refused to travel
to Spain," said Laura Pollan, the head of the Ladies in White, a group
of wives of political prisoners.
Pollan, whose husband Hector Maseda, 67, is serving a 20-year sentence
and has refused emigration to Spain, said at least 20 relatives of the
political prisoners would attend the meeting.
Following contacts between Cardinal Jaime Ortega and President Raul
Castro, the government agreed earlier this month to release 52
dissidents who have been imprisoned since a 2003 crackdown.
So far, 11 political prisoners have emigrated to Spain and another nine
were expected to leave for Madrid later Monday as part of Cuba's biggest
release of political prisoners in over a decade.
The cardinal is consulting the remaining prisoners on their options, but
relatives said more than a dozen could refuse emigration or ask to be
sent to the United States instead of Spain.
The Cuban cardinal visited the United States in June before the deal on
the prisoner release was announced July 7, a State Department spokesman
told AFP on Friday.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing senior US administration
officials, said Oretega met with assistant secretary of state for
Hemispheric Affairs America Arturo Valenzuela during the June 21-27 visit.
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