Cuba briefly delays release of 13 political prisoners
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
One of the 13 Cuban political prisoners who were expected to be released
last weekend has reported that he was told by one government official
that he would be freed within 15 to 30 days.
The report is the first sign of a possible new release date for the 13,
after the unofficial deadline of Sunday passed without word from the
Cuban government or Catholic church.
Alejandrina García, the wife of Diosdado González, said he told her
Tuesday night that a senior State Security official in his home province
of Matanzas visited him in prison Tuesday and told him he would be freed
in 15 days to one month.
The official told González that that government's promise to release the
13 ``had not been broken'' but gave no details on the reason for the
delay or the new release dates, García said by phone from her home in
Matanzas.
There was no immediate word on whether the other 12 dissidents had also
been approached by government officials with word on possible release dates.
Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega announced on July 7 that the Raúl Castro
government had agreed to release 52 jailed dissidents -- the last still
imprisoned from a 2003 crackdown on 75 opposition activists -- in the
next ``three to four months.''
The government has released 39 of the 52 plus seven others convicted of
violent crimes such as hijacking boats or airplanes to escape the island
-- and sent them directly to exile in Spain -- The remaining 13 have
been refusing to go into exile if freed.
García said she spoke with her husband by phone Tuesday morning and
learned that he had declared a hunger strike since Sunday to protest the
continued imprisonment of the 13 dissidents.
She urged him to abandon the hunger strike, García told El Nuevo Herald,
because their 14-month-old granddaughter is hospitalized with anemia
``and I felt very badly already, very stressed.''
González called her again Tuesday night to report the visit by the state
security official known only as ``Ervin'' and that he had abandoned the
hunger strike, García said.
``We don't know if this is for real or a government trick to make him
halt the strike,'' García added.
Another of the 13, Luis Enrique Ferrer, has apparently agreed to leave
for Spain if the government allows some of his relatives to take legal
possession of his home, said Havana human rights activist Elizardo
Sánchez. Cubans face a critical housing shortage and tight controls on
transfering real estate.
Government officials have told Ferrer that his request will be met, and
he is likely to be freed soon, said Sánchez, head of the Cuban
Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
The Ladies in White, a group of women relatives of jailed dissidents,
meanwhile met with Spanish diplomats in Havana Wednesday to seek an
explanation for the delays. Former Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos took part in the July 7 meeting between Ortega and Castro.
The Spanish diplomats told the women to have ``faith and hope'' that the
men will be released.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/11/1920948/cuba-briefly-delays-release-of.html
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