HAVANA, (Reuters) – Most of the 53 Cuban prisoners released from jail under a historic U.S.-Cuba accord remain bound to the justice system under conditions that could easily return them to prison, dissident leaders say.
While they doubt Cuba’s communist government would risk its rapprochement with the United States by putting former prisoners back behind bars, they say the 53 released are not entirely free. “It was done with the sword of Damocles hanging over them,” said Rafael Molina, a leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), the country’s largest dissident organization.
About one-third of the 38 people released last week are subject to “conditional release,” meaning they must periodically report to the courts supervising their cases, said the dissident Cuban Commis-sion of Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Another third were released on parole, requiring them to serve out their terms outside prison but unable to leave the country, it said.
Others were simply freed pending trial, with charges still intact, or had their sentences altered.
Virtually all can be returned to jail for minor offenses and some say they were told to stay away from opposition politics. “None of them have unconditional freedom. None of them,” said Elizardo Sanchez, leader of the commission, although he added he did not believe the government would harass them. Haydee Gallardo, 51, and her husband were among those released last week and she took part in a protest march organized by the Ladies in White group over the weekend.
Though she believes she is one of the few to have no conditions set on her release, she says she worries her husband Angel Figueredo, 53, could be returned to jail.
“I don’t think the repression will stop considering that they continue to keep watch over us,” Gallardo told Reuters. “I’m afraid the repression will result in him getting locked up again.” Figueredo said he was never told what he could or could not do outside of prison, but that he has received more subtle messages. After leaving the Ladies in White march, he said he saw a state security officer whom he recognized, watching from his car.
“He gave me a threatening nod of the head, but he didn’t stop me or talk to us,” he said.
STIGMA, SUSPICION
Released dissidents often return to their homes stigmatized, enduring suspicions from Cubans who show little or no sympathy for those who openly challenge the one-party system.
