Published April 08, 2011
EFE
Havana – Members of the Cuban opposition expressed regret Friday at
Spain's announcement that the process of releasing prisoners in Cuba
that began last year has come to an end, because they believe there are
still some 50 political prisoners behind bars on the island.
The spokesman for the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez, said that the end of the process begun
July 2010 by the Cuban government with the mediation of the Catholic
Church and the support of Spain "is very bad news."
"There are at least 50 well-documented cases of people in prison for
political reasons, many of them the most hated by the Castro regime, so
naturally they're the most vulnerable," Sanchez told Efe.
Among those cases are former officials or military officers considered
to be "traitors, spies and saboteurs," as well as "very radical"
political dissidents and members of anti-Castro organizations in exile
that landed in Cuba with weapons to oppose the regime, the dissident said.
Sanchez was also sorry that neither Spain nor the Catholic Church "had
been capable of making a proposal" during the process, letting the Cuban
government be the one to choose - and it made its selection "entirely in
its own interest."
"We have to keep turning to the international community to try and
protect these 50 or more political prisoners," he said.
A communique released Friday by the Spanish Foreign Ministry said that
the release of prisoners worked out by the government and the Catholic
Church ended with the arrival in Madrid this week of 37 freed dissidents
together with 200 family members.
Over the last nine months, 115 prisoners were freed, of whom 103 went to
Spain with 647 family members, and only 12, from the "Group of 75"
jailed in March 2003, remain in Cuba, having refused exile to Spain.
The total includes all of the jailed Cuban dissidents designated by
Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.
Oscar Biscet, one of the Group of 75 prisoners who refused exile, called
this wrapping up of the liberation process a "setback for the cause of
democracy" in Cuba.
For her part, Laura Pollan, spokeswoman for the Ladies in White,
comprising relatives of the Group of 75 who ask for the freeing of all
political prisoners, thanked the government and particularly the Spanish
people for having received 1,000 prisoners and their families amid
serious economic difficulties in the Iberian nation.
"I believe we must be thankful for what Spain has done. Many years ago
there were never less than 100 on the lists of political prisoners in
Cuba," Pollan said.
According to the Ladies in White, there are 61 "documented" cases of
political prisoners on the Communist-ruled island, including the 17
dissidents of the Group of 75 who left jail on parole.
Pollan believes that the real number is higher because there are many
political prisoners whose families have not presented their cases or
documents to any opposition group, so there could still be as many as 75
or 80 behind bars.
"From now on, if the government agrees, other countries could be
approached, or, at least it should do what we Ladies have always asked
for - comply with the rules and change the laws so there will never be
any more political prisoners," she said.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/04/08/dissidents-cuba-holding-political-prisoners/
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