(AFP)
WASHINGTON — Washington will allow most of the 38 dissidents recently
released from prison in Cuba to resettle in the United States, a State
Department spokesman said Tuesday.
Spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said in a statement that the US
government had "arranged for the Department of State to refer to US
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) certain recently released
Cuban political prisoners who express a desire to come to the United
States to be eligible."
The 38 freed dissidents are part of a group of 52 opposition activists
that Cuba agreed to release before November, most of whom have gone to
Spain.
"The US embassy in Madrid is actively reaching out to the released
political prisoners to inform them of this possibility and share
information about eligibility," Luoma-Overstreet said.
The Havana government agreed on July 7 to release the remaining 52 of 75
dissidents still behind bars after being arrested in a March 2003 crackdown.
The landmark deal securing their freedom was part of a arrangement
brokered by the Madrid government and the Catholic Church, and came
after dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas nearly starved to death.
If all 52 dissidents are freed, it will be the largest release of Cuban
prisoners since 1998 when 300 dissidents were spared jail time following
a visit by then-pope John Paul II.
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