HAVANA (Reuters) – The Cuban government will free 52 political prisoners, Cuba’s Catholic church said yesterday, in a major concession to international pressure to improve the country’s human rights record.
It said five of the prisoners would be released later yesterday and allowed to go to Spain, while the remaining 47 would be freed over the next few months and permitted to leave the country.
The 52 men appeared to be those remaining in jail from 75 arrested in a 2003 government crackdown against dissidents.
The release will reduce the number of dissidents behind bars on the communist-led Caribbean island to close to 100 and perhaps improve relations with the United States and Europe, who have long pressed Havana to free political prisoners.
Human rights advocates said earlier this week that Cuba had 167 political prisoners behind bars, including 10 who were out on parole.
The release would be the largest since 1998, when 101 political prisoners were among about 300 inmates freed following a visit by Pope John Paul II.
It follows recent dialogue between President Raul Castro and Cuban Catholic leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega, as the church has taken a more prominent role in national affairs. It also came after Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos met on Tuesday with Cuban officials in Havana. He said he came to the island to lend support to the church’s efforts.
The church statement said Ortega was informed of the releases yesterday in meetings with Castro and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, with Moratinos also present.
The government had not yet issued a statement on the releases.
Cuba came under heavy international criticism after the Feb. 23 death of hunger striking dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo and has begun to relax its policy toward dissidents — it considers them mercenaries working for the United States.
Another dissident, Guillermo Farinas, has been on a hunger strike for 134 days, seeking the freedom of 25 ailing political prisoners, who are believed included in the group to be released.
It was not yet clear how he would respond because his sister, Raisa Farinas, said he was not well enough to talk to the press. The dissident, who is in a hospital in the central city of Santa Clara, said earlier this week he was near death due to a blood clot in his neck and ongoing fever.
His mother, Alicia Fernandez, told Reuters she was ecstatic about the news of the releases. “I feel like I’m born again,” she said.
US President Barack Obama has made modest efforts to improve relations with Cuba, and hinged further progress on the release of political prisoners.
But the United States is also demanding the release of U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who has been jailed in Cuba since December on suspicion of espionage activities, and said his continued detention would stifle improvements in relations.
They say he was not a spy but was in Cuba providing Internet access to Jewish groups.
There was not yet an official reaction to the releases from the US State Department in Washington.
