Cuba to send 3 more prisoners to exile in Spain
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Roman Catholic officials on Monday announced the names of
three more Cuban prisoners who have accepted exile in Spain in return
for freedom.
One of the men, Adrian Alvarez Arenciba, has been in jail since 1985 for
espionage and other violations of state security. Another, Ramon Fidel
Basulto Garcia, was convicted of hijacking in 1994. Both were serving
30-year sentences. The third man, Joel Torres Gonzalez, does not appear
on the most widely used list of Cuban dissidents or political prisoners.
The church issued a statement saying all three will shortly be sent to
Spain, along with their families.
Under an agreement hammered out with the church in July, President Raul
Castro faces a Sunday deadline to free the last 13 of 52 remaining
prisoners of conscience arrested in 2003. Thirty-nine have left for
Spain so far - along with 11 people jailed separately, often for violent
offenses.
None of the three named Monday are part of the group of opposition
leaders, activists and intellectuals rounded up in that 2003 crackdown,
however.
When the deal was struck, there was no mention of exile being a
condition for release, though all the prisoners who have been freed so
far have accepted the arrangement.
The remaining 13 seem determined to stay in Cuba, and several have said
they will continue fighting for democratic political change once
released. That is a direct challenge for a government that describes the
opposition as mercenaries paid by Washington to destabilize the island's
socialist system.
Cuba won praise in Europe when it agreed to release the prisoners, but
pressure is mounting to finish the job.
Guillermo Farinas, a dissident who won Europe's Sakharov human rights
prize in October after staging a 134-day hunger strike in support of the
prisoners, told The Associated Press that he will stop eating again Nov.
8 if the remaining dissidents are not in their homes.
The Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of the 2003 political
prisoners, have also vowed increased activity if the government backs
away from its promise.
Church officials have said privately that they are waiting to see if the
government will keep its word. Cuban officials have had no comment on
the deadline.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/01/1902824/cuba-to-send-3-more-prisoners.html
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