BY PAUL WEBSTER HARE
PAULHARE@BU.EDU

Cuban political prisoners are being released because of dialogue, Spanish Minister Moratinos is telling the European Union. He is claiming the Spanish government's approach is vindicated and that the EU Common Position on Cuba should now be abandoned. There is a ``new era'' in Cuba.

The promised release (or exile) of 52 political prisoners is welcome news, but how really did it happen and how should the international community now engage with Cuba?

Dialogue with Cuba is nothing new to the EU. Since the Common Position was agreed upon in 1996, scores of EU ministers from member countries have visited Cuba, and many Cuban government officials have visited Europe. The EU has sponsored major cooperation programs with Cuba and exchanges in science, education, sport and culture. EU tourists and foreign investment have followed. The objective is to promote greater political and economic openness from within Cuba.

This EU dialogue and engagement with Cuba has been achieved with a Common Position. Indeed such instruments are widely used to coordinate EU foreign policy. The EU and Cuba opened a formal EU Commission office in Havana in March 2003 and the Cuban government was delighted.

However, five days later, when the eyes of the rest of the world were on Iraq, the EU reacted to Cuba's crackdown and jailing of the 75, whose releases we see now. The EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba and invited the dissidents and their families to their parties, alongside members of the government. Fidel Castro was furious, staging massive rallies against the Spanish and Italian embassies and freezing diplomatic contacts. The British embassy received a bomb threat. The solidarity which the EU fostered helped the formation of the Damas de Blanco group. They and Oswaldo Paya have both won EU Parliament prizes. All this was under the Common Position.

Moratinos came to office in 2004 and proposed a radical shift in EU policy. He questioned the purpose of the sanctions, arguing the Common Position stood in the way of "a serene and confident relationship'' between the EU and Cuba. Moratinos set about negotiating the sanctions away.

Fourteen prisoners were released by December 2004 (while the EU sanctions were still in place) including prominent figures like Raul Rivero, Martha Beatriz Roque and Oscar Espinosa Chepe. Since the dropping of the EU sanctions there were no other mass releases of prisoners -- until July 2010.

Moratinos' diplomacy has involved regular contact with the Cuban government. Yet when in Havana he has refused to meet opposition figures and did not question the Cuban government's record on human rights. In 2009 Moratinos said that the scrapping of the Common Position on Cuba would be a centerpiece of the Spanish EU presidency in the first half of 2010.

Why? Because it was disrespectful to the Cuban government and stood in the way of a "normal'' relationship between Cuba and the EU.

As often in Cuba policy, events have intervened. Five years after the EU dropped its sanctions, Yoani Sánchez was being attacked, the Damas de Blanco were being harassed and threatened and Orlando Zapata Tamayo had died for the cause of the dissident prisoners. On March 11, the European Parliament condemned the Cuban government for Zapata's death and called for renewed EU attention to human rights. On March 24, President Obama echoed the same sentiments. In April 2010, Cardinal Jaime Ortega gave his now famous, forthright interview to the Catholic Church's Palabra Nueva, and respected Cubans like Silvio Rodríguez and Carlos Varela criticized repression in Cuba.

The prisoner releases are not then simply attributable to "dialogue.'' The EU has had to play a more versatile role as Cubans themselves have been emboldened. The church's assertiveness followed EU and international outrage and showed what many suspected -- that the church had long underused it potential for political influence.

The church has now embraced the dissidents' cause and wider frustrations. Combined with the opposition's own courage they have forged an effective alliance. But the EU has also continued to focus on Cuba. Its tourists, investment and cooperation are still there. But it refused to abandon the Common Position in June 2010 as Moratinos wanted, postponing their review until September. We see the results today.

Moratinos can claim credit for keeping the EU's attention on Cuba but the firmness of the collective EU in denouncing Cuban repression has surely proved more valuable since 1996. It has helped to produce more than dialogue for its own sake. The EU should heed these lessons when it reviews Cuba policy -- and the continued lack of basic freedoms on the island -- in September.

Paul Webster Hare was British ambassador to Cuba from 2001-04 and was in Havana at the time of the jailing of the 75 political prisoners in 2003.

Washington, D.C., July 13, 2010—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomes the decision by the government of Cuba to release seven persons who had been deprived of their liberty since 2003. According to the information received, those released were taken to Spain, and others reportedly may be released as well.

In October 2006, the IACHR adopted its Report on the Merits in Case 12.476, in which it recommended that the State of Cuba immediately and unconditionally release 75 dissidents, members of the opposition, human rights activists, and independent journalists who had been arrested in March 2003 for exercising their right to freedom of expression. All the dissidents who were released are victims named in that Report on the Merits.

The IACHR encourages the State of Cuba to continue with the process of release of all political prisoners. Likewise, the Commission reiterates that, as it recommended in the Merits Report in Case 12.476, Cuba must overturn their convictions and bring its procedural norms in line with applicable international standards for due process, so that persons who turn to the courts to determine their rights and responsibilities can count on the minimum legal guarantees to exercise their defense.

The IACHR calls upon the State to undertake all necessary reforms in accordance with its international human rights obligations and to implement a process of democratic normalization. The IACHR remains at the disposal of the State of Cuba to assist in this process.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.

Useful links
Press Release 33/10: IACHR Concerned about Situation of Guillermo Fariñas in Cuba
Press Release 22/10: IACHR Condemns Death of Orlando Zapata in Cuba
Merits Report, Case No. 12.476, Cuba
IACHR Press Office
IACHR Web site


(Source: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights).

The State Department confirmed reports that Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega was in the U.S. just days before he announced a deal with Raúl Castro to release political prisoners.

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega visited the United States in June, just days before he announced that the Raúl Castro government had agreed to free 52 political prisoners, the U.S. State Department confirmed Friday.

"Cardinal Ortega visited the United States in June,'' said Virginia Staab, a Western Hemisphere Affairs spokesperson. But she declined comment on reports that Ortega met with two senior U.S. officials in Washington during the visit and informed them -- with Cuba's approval -- of his talks with Castro on the prisoner release.

"What we find important here is not who knew what when but that several individuals who were imprisoned simply due to their personal beliefs have been released and that many more (more than 100) have not yet been identified for release,'' she said.

"We continue to urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, not just those arrested during the Black Spring crackdown in 2003.''

TOP OFFICIALS

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 28 that Ortega had met with Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Neither have confirmed the report.
Berman has endorsed a bill before Congress that would lift all U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba -and unleash a gusher of U.S. tourism dollars for the economically strapped island.

Officials in Washington told El Nuevo Herald that Ortega was in Washington on June 22 as part of a low-profile U.S. visit. He also spent time in New York City, apparently meeting with U.S. Catholic church officials.

Ortega's director of communications, Orlando Marquez, confirmed to the website Progreso Weekly on June 30 that the cardinal had visited Washington for meetings arranged by the U.S. Conference of Bishops.

MONTHS OF TALKS

Ortega's talks with Castro began in March, after pro-government mobs harassed the Ladies in White during their marches, following a mass in a Havana church to demand the release of relatives jailed since the 2003 crackdown.

It was only last week that Castro agreed that over the next three to four months he would free the last 52 dissidents still in jail from the 2003 roundup, which sentenced 75 opposition figures to lengthy prison terms.

Two dozen others were previously released.

Madrid, Spain, Jul 16, 2010 (CNA/Europa Press).- The group of Cuban political prisoners who were released and sent to Spain as a result of the mediation of the Catholic Church called on the Raul Castro regime Thursday to immediately release those dissidents who refuse to be “deported” to Spain and desire to remain in Cuba to defend their ideas.

“The Cuban government has released those of us who have chosen exile,” said journalist Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso during a press conference in Madrid. “It’s much easier to free those who want to stay,” he added. “All you have to do is open the prison doors.”

“If the intention is to release them all, what are they waiting for?” he asked. Alfonso questioned whether Castro’s intention is to use these political prisoners as “hostages” or pawns for future deals.

Alfonso said the government should release these political prisoners “at once” and not within three or four months, as was promised to Cardinal Jaime Ortega during negotiations.

Julio Cesar Galvez, another dissident who arrived in Madrid this week, echoed Gonzalez Alfonso's sentiments and said the eventual release of the prisoners in Cuba should also mean they will be free to move about the country and find work, without harassment from state security agents. “May those who want to stay there be freed,” he said.

Galvez read a statement from the nine dissidents in Madrid pledging their commitment to “continue the fight for the release of all the prisoners” and for “a free and democratic Cuba.” “If we defended our rights when it was impossible to speak up, it would absurd to give up the fight now that we have much more favorable conditions,” he said.

Omar Rodriguez Saludes, another of the dissidents sent to Spain, called on the Cuban government to first release those prisoners who are sick among the 52 it has promised to free, citing the particular cases of Efren Fernandez and Guido Sigler Amaya.

Prison conditions

Julio Cesar Galvez also took the occasion to denounce the terrible prison conditions in Cuba, where sometimes as many as 40 prisoners share a cell infested with rats, cockroaches and other pests. They are often fed nothing more than water boiled with plantain peels.

Not only are the political prisoners subject to such harsh conditions, so are common criminals are as well. Many of them suffer from dengue fever and tuberculosis. Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, another freed dissident, said prison officials ignore the pleas of those who have fallen ill, leading many to fall into despair and commit self-inflicted wounds in order to gain the medical attention they need.

For this reason, Omar Rodriguez demanded the Cuban government allow the U.N. to visit prisons on the island and assess their conditions. Julio Cesar Galvez went even further and said U.N. inspectors should be allowed in “to show what is happening inside Cuba.”

Rodriguez also quoted a famous statement by Fidel Castro—“Ideas cannot be killed”—and said, “Neither can ideas be kidnapped or exiled, that is our message to the Cuban government.”

Havana, Cuba (CNA).- The coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, slammed the Cuban government this week for not respecting the rights of the recently-freed political prisoners and sending them into exile. He vowed the fight to free Cuba would continue forward.

The first group of 11 prisoners were released this week and immediately flown to Spain. The remaining 41 political prisoners will be freed in the next three months.

"The dignity, rights and even feelings of those who have been freed are not being respected," Payá said. "They and those who remain imprisoned carry the torch of heroes. We thank them and we say to them: we shall continue together to fight for the freedom and rights of Cubans," he said in a message.

"Some wish to portray this action by the government as change in Cuba (I wish it were change)," Payá continued. He noted that if the Spanish government and Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs "are saying this is the beginning of the changes, Cubans aren’t aware of it, and it seems the Cuban government isn’t either."

For this reason, he said, the Communist government ought to be the one "telling the people that this is beginning of the changes."

Payá criticized the decision to force the political prisoners into exile: "We must remember that these men were not blowing things up or engaging in violence," Payá said, unlike Fidel and Raul Castro, who were released from prison in 1953 and were allowed to stay in the country. "So it seems the current government is more afraid the ideas of these brothers of ours than the dictator Batista was of their rifles and bombs," Payá added.

The exiled Cubans leave "with their hearts broken and full of uncertainty, but with high morale and with our sentiments of gratitude for what they suffered cruelly in prison for the rights and liberty of Cubans,” remarked Payá. “The world should know that these men carry with them the courage and dignity of an entire people."

The BBC reports:

Former Cuban political prisoners have said their release does not signal a change in political conditions on the Communist-run island.

Nine dissidents arrived earlier this week in Spain under the terms of an agreement brokered with the help of the Catholic church in Cuba.

Normando Hernandez, one of the former prisoners, said Havana's motives should not be misunderstood.

He said that "Cuba is not opening up to democracy."

"I personally think it is a trick by the Cuban government. The economic needs on the island are huge. The social situation is critical, the political stagnation.

"This is why it is important to draw the international communities attention to this aspect of the Cuban government so they don't get fooled again," the dissident told the BBC in Madrid.

Mr Hernandez was imprisoned in 2003 allegedly for organising an independent college of journalism in Cuba.

He told the BBC that his health had been badly damaged by poor food and sanitary conditions during his seven years in jail.

More at the link.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary welcomes the decision, that as a result of the mediation efforts by the Cuban Roman Catholic Church and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, Cuban authorities shall release 52 political prisoners, and considers this development an initial step towards the actual improvement of the human rights situation in Cuba.

Hungary deems it necessary that following a speedy and complete implementation of the relevant agreement of discharge, this process should continue, leading to an early and unconditional release of all political prisoners. Forced emigration of former political prisoners cannot be the solution; only dialogue within the society can open up a new chapter in this field as well.

Hungary is interested in witnessing real changes in the human rights situation in Cuba and in having social and economic reforms introduced. This could provide a new basis for cooperation between the EU, its Member States and Cuba.

New York City, July 14, 2010—PEN American Center welcomed the news that Cuban journalists Normando Hernández González, Dr. José Luis García Paneque, and Léster Luis González Pentón, all high PEN priority cases who had been imprisoned since a March 2003 crackdown on dissent, have arrived safely in Madrid. García and González arrived with their families and four other released journalists on Tuesday, and Hernández arrived on a flight from Havana Wednesday with his family and another freed colleague.

“This really is a remarkable, hopeful moment for all who believe in the power of individual commitment and international solidarity to effect change,” said Larry Siems, Director of PEN American Center’s Freedom to Write and International Programs. “PEN has been inspired by the courage and endurance of these men and their families, and we have been inspired by the determination of PEN Members and journalists and human rights advocates around the world to see them free.”

The eight writers were released as part of a deal brokered by the Catholic Church and the Spanish Foreign Ministry, under which the Cuban government has agreed to release all remaining 52 dissidents imprisoned in the March 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown, when 75 journalists and activists were arrested. Those released and flown to Spain reportedly have the option of staying or traveling to the United States or Chile, where they have also been offered asylum.

José Luis García Paneque, a journalist with the Agencia Libertad press agency, librarian at the Carlos J. Finlay Library, and plastic surgeon, was arrested on March 18, 2003, and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He suffered numerous ailments while serving his sentence at Las Mangas Prison, Granma, and lost a considerable amount of weight. His wife was forced to flee Cuba and seek asylum in the United States, where she currently resides.

Léster Luis González Pentón, an independent journalist, was the youngest to be imprisoned during Black Spring, and was serving a 20-year sentence at the Prisión Penitencial “La Pendiente,” in Santa Clara in the state of Villa Clara when the orders for his release came through. His wife, mother, stepfather, and two sisters joined him in Madrid, according to reports.

Normando Hernández Gonzalez, who arrived in Madrid at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time with his wife and daughter, was serving a 25-year sentence for reporting on the conditions of state-run services in Cuba and for criticizing the government’s management of issues such as tourism, agriculture, fishing, and cultural affairs. Held in deplorable prison conditions, he was hospitalized repeatedly over the past seven years. As his health declined, PEN mounted an increasingly urgent campaign on his behalf, awarding Hernández the 2007 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award and pressing the Cuban government to provide him adequate medical care and grant him a humanitarian release.

“In the more than seven years since the ‘Black Spring’ crackdown, PEN Members have not only consistently pressed for the release of the imprisoned dissidents, we have also taken a personal interest in the plights of these imprisoned men, developing relationships with their families and sending the men cards, books, and even towels and toothbrushes in prison,” said Anna Kushner, PEN American Center Member and Freedom to Write Case Advocate. “Through conversations with their mothers and wives, we have received updates about the deteriorating state of the men’s health and the psychological strain of physical separation on all members of their families. It is an enormous relief to see these brave men free and reunited with their families, and with access to the medical attention at last that they so greatly need.”

“We hope that the Cuban government will follow up on these releases by allowing space for public dissent on the island, so that all writers and peaceful activists in Cuba are able to express themselves freely going forward without fear of repercussions,” she concluded.

PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of International PEN, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program of PEN American Center works to protect the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled. It defends writers and journalists from all over the world who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted, or attacked in the course of carrying out their profession. For more information on PEN’s work, please visit www.pen.org.

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Two newly freed Cuban political prisoners arrived in Madrid on Wednesday, joining seven others just beginning to feel the shock of leaving their country and to consider whether they want to stay in Spain or move on to the United States.

One of the latest arrivals, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, told reporters he feels "like I was still in prison" because "I left behind part of my family. I feel like I still have the cuffs on my hands."

Rodríguez, 45, and Normando Hernández, 40, arrived Wednesday and were expected to be followed soon by Luis Milán and Mijail Barzaga. They would join the seven other political prisoners who were freed earlier this week and flown to Spain.

Hernández held a tearful reunion with his mother, Blanca González, who flew in from Miami. "I am very tense, very nervous, very emotional," González said.

Hernandez said that while he was ecstatic to see his mother, "I am an emotional wreck, and physically also. This has been terrible. I would not wish it on anyone."

"Everything has been a shock. I always thought the future would be in Cuba, not in exile," Rodriguez said. The change "has been abrupt, from a prison cell to the light of the airplane."

The ex-prisoners and the relatives they took with them to Spain were just beginning to consider their futures from a hotel in Madrid where the Spanish Red Cross put them up.

Omar Ruiz told The Associated Press that he wanted to join his wife's family in Miami. But José Luis García Paneque, who has a wife and four children in Texas, and Pablo Pacheco, who has several relatives in South Florida, said they want to stay in Spain for now.

"The only thing I ask of the Spanish people is the opportunity," Garcia declared. "Where I come from, no one had paid me so much attention."

Informs his brother, Miguel Sigler Amaya, in a note circulated [in Spanish] on Facebook. This is our translation:

During the afternoon of yesterday 14 July 2010, Ariel Sigler Amaya, and some of his relatives arrived at the [provincial] Immigration offices in the Cuban province of Matanzas, to obtain his “White Card” (Carta Blanca) or Permit to Leave the Country [which is required to leave Cuba in all cases]. They were received by an officer of the Ministry of Interior* named Mercedes who told them that it wasn’t yet the time to give them said document, and that he must wait.

This reply from the functionary aroused a protest from Ariel and his relatives which [in turn] caused a serious incident. Ariel Sigler displayed a sign that read “I AM DYING, [AND] SECURITY OF STATE DENIES MY PERMIT TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.”

Several officers surrounded Ariel Sigler, and there were shoves and pushes, as well as shouts again the Castroite dictatorship. A few minutes later, a Security of State Lieutenant Colonel [whose last name is] Barreto, appeared and in a rude and aggressive fashion told them that this issue would be solved by Monday 19 July.

The entire Sigler Amaya family, including all the women and even the [gravely] ill Ariel Sigler as well as his wife, decided that if on Monday 19 July they have not yet received the Permit; they will start a hunger strike in a public place, and hold Security of State responsible for the outcome.

This delay by the Castroite dictatorship in issuing the Permit to Leave the Country to the gravely ill Ariel Sigler Amaya, who has a US government issued humanitarian visa because of his [multiple] illness[es]; contrasts [negatively] with the expedited manner in which several political prisoners have been exiled to Spain and to whom the regime has issued their travel papers in just three days.

• Pedro Argüelles
• Eduardo Díaz Fleitas
• Regis Iglesias
• Oscar Elías Biscet
• Librado Linares
• José Daniel Ferrer
• Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique
• Iván Hernández Carrillo
• Fidel Suárez Cruz
• Diosdado González Marrero

MADRID — Two more freed Cuban dissidents arrived in Spain on Wednesday, a day after the first batch from a total of 52 political prisoners who are being released by Havana, the foreign ministry said.

Journalists Normando Hernandez, 40, and Omar Rodriguez, 44, arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport on an Iberia flight along with 13 family members, a ministry spokesman said.

Seven others arrived in Spain on Tuesday, following Cuba's surprise deal with the Roman Catholic Church on July 7 to gradually free 52 detainees after dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas nearly starved to death.

It is the largest release of political prisoners since 1998 when 300 dissidents were spared jail time by a presidential pardon following a visit by then-pope John Paul II.

Havana wants to avoid a repeat of the death in detention of political prisoner Orlando Zapata on February 23 as it seeks closer international ties to improve its grim economic situation.

The seven dissidents who arrived in Madrid on Tuesday said their release heralded a new era for the communist island nation.

"This signifies the start of a new stage for the future of Cuba and all Cubans," they said in a joint statement after they arrived.

But experts point out that the mass release in 1998 was not followed by any large-scale lifting of oppressive measures since then, as hoped at the time.

"For me, this is a dream, it seems like what I am living is not real," one of the seven dissidents who arrived in Spain on Tuesday, Lester Gonzalez Penton, told AFP at a motel in suburban Madrid where they are staying.

The 33-year-old was accompanied by his wife, his mother, his stepfather and two sisters but had to leave his eight-year-old daughter from another relationship behind in Cuba because her mother would not let the girl leave.

"I am happy to be with my family but also sad for having abandoned my country," added Penton, an opposition journalist who was serving a 20-year prison term.

Julio Cesar Galvez, another one of the seven dissidents who arrived on Tuesday, said going from living in a small cell "without air, with mice, rats, cockroaches and scorpions" to being free and in Spain had been a "sudden change".

The 65-year-old said he would like to work as a journalist again.

He was dismissed from Cuban public radio in 2001 for secretly working for US media outlets like the Voice of America and was serving a 15-year sentence.

Twenty of the 52 dissidents being freed by Cuba this time around have agreed to emigrate to Spain.

All 52 dissidents were sentenced in 2003 to prison terms of between six and 28 years.

Another two dissidents, Luis Milan, 40, and Mijail Barzaga, 43, will arrive in Madrid on Thursday, the Spanish foreign ministry spokesman said.

Spain, the former colonial power in Cuba and the largest foreign investor in the country, helped broker the deal between the Cuban government and the Church.

Speaking during an annual state of the nation debate in parliament, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he was pleased with the "influence" which Madrid had demonstrated during the talks.

Spain has said it is willing to receive all of the prisoners after their release.

MADRID (AP) - As Spain prepares to receive more political prisoners from Cuba, the seven who have already arrived with their families are welcoming their newfound freedom but face an uncertain future in a country heavily burdened with debt.

A Spanish foreign ministry spokesman says three more free Cubans will arrive on Wednesday.

The freed Cubans said in interviews that Spain is a gift compared with the prisons where they were held in Cuba.

They left Cuba with just a few suitcases, and at least one had no money and no change of clothes.

A total of 20 have agreed to move to Spain.

Cuba's decision to release 52 political prisoners Havana does not signal any shift in the communist regime's hold over the island, US analysts said Tuesday.

Havana's release of seven of the dissidents to Spain Monday, ahead of four more expected transfers in the coming days, came as former Cuba leader Fidel Castro's gave his first television interview in almost a year, a move that analysts said was to distract the population of the one-party state.

Castro's appearance "contradicts those who thought there might be a change underway in Cuba, or a move towards closer, better relations with the United States," Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, told AFP.

"Nothing has changed in Cuba" following the dissidents' release, he said, adding that while President Raul Castro was handling day-to-day leadership in the country, "the important decisions, especially in foreign policy" were still being made in consultation with his older brother, Fidel.

Some observers have seen the releases as signalling a shift away from decades of hardline policy by Fidel and Raul, but critics have been quick to shoot down such a possibility.

The previous large-scale release of prisoners came in 1998, following a visit by then-pope John Paul II, with 300 dissidents spared jail time by a presidential pardon. Experts point out that that move was not followed by any large-scale lifting of oppressive measures since then, as hoped at the time.

The releases to Spain "do not imply a change in the repressive regime," insisted Angel De Fana, Miami-based director of the group Plantados of former Cuban political prisoners.

"These people are forced to leave because if they wanted to stay in Cuba, they would remain under a totalitarian regime and go back to being incarcerated."

The purpose of Fidel's TV appearance, according to Cuba expert Uva de Aragon at Florida International University, "was to distract attention from the release of the political prisoners."

After previous releases of dissidents, noted de Aragon, an associate director at Florida's Cuban Research Institute, "nothing changed, as other prisoners are taken."

Cuba agreed to gradually free 52 political prisoners -- the biggest gesture of its kind in a decade -- in a surprise deal between the Roman Catholic Church after a hunger strike to near-death by dissident Guillermo Farinas.

And according to the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission, even after all the 52 inmates are released, there will still be 115 political prisoners held in Cuba, the only one-party Communist system in the Americas, where censorship is enforced with an iron fist.

US officials have said the release of political prisoners is a necessary step before the two governments can improve their often strained relations, with a decades-long US trade embargo still in place.

The Cuban government, however, which consistently skirts the issue in its official media outlets, still denies holding any political prisoners, saying they are mercenaries in the pay of the United States.

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Four more political prisoners who are among the 52 who Cuba has authorised to leave the country will arrive in Spain over the next two days, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said yesterday.

"Another four are due to arrive," he told parliament just hours after seven other Cuban dissidents and 33 of their close family members arrived in Madrid.

A foreign ministry spokesman identified the four who will arrive over the next two days as Omar Rodriguez, Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, Luis Milan and Mijail Barzaga.

Cuba agreed last Wednesday to gradually free 52 political prisoners -- the biggest gesture of its kind in a decade -- in a surprise deal between the Roman Catholic Church after a hunger strike to near-death by dissident Guillermo Farinas.

"The scenario which is emerging in Cuba... reveals a new desire on the part of the Cuban government... to wrap up the release of political prisoners... and advance with social and economic reforms," Moratinos added.

According to Cuban dissidents, there will still be 115 political prisoners in Cuba, the only one-party Communist regime in the Americas, even after all the 52 dissidents are released.

Spain, which helped broker the deal between the Cuban government and the Church, has said it is willing to receive all of the prisoners after their release.

Church officials have said that so far, 20 of the 52 had agreed to leave Cuba, a former Spanish colony, for Spain.