Prisoners are released, not freed (UPDATED)

The Associated Press has the story on the reported release from prison of six Cuban dissidents — Lazaro Alonso Roman, Manuel Perez Soria, Elio Enrique Chavez Ramon, Jose Diaz Silva, Emilio Leyva Perez and Dulian Ramirez Ballester — who have completed sentences of 2 to 4 years in prison each. Earlier, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, known as "Antunez," had been released after serving his full 17-year term plus a little more than a month more for good measures.

The releases are good news, for the prisoners and their families. But in an e-mail, dissident leader Marta Beatriz Roque cautions against reading much into the release.

And that goes especially for the Spanish government, which Roque said might be tempted to argue that its recent appeasement of Havana might somehow have lead to the releases.

The government "hasn't liberated anyone," Roque wrote. "All they did was complete their sentences."

Roque continued: "We must not be deceived by this trick to make it seem as if they are releasing prisoners. ... You know the Cuban government has a virtual language that it uses to confuse anyone it can confuse."

For the whole e-mail, in Spanish, read below the fold.

(H/T for the e-mail to Stefania.)

UPDATED, 5:21 a.m. EDT, April 25, 2007

Payo Libre has more details about the prisoners who were released, and reminds that at least one more, Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, completes his sentence soon.

Ademas de adjuntarle el sexto documento de la serie, quiero contarles algo. Hoy salieron de prision algunos de los presos del 13 de Julio, yo tengo confirmados 3, pero seg'un le dijo Fernandez Trigo (embajada de España) a Elizardo Sanchez el Minrex le habia informado que habian "liberado" a 6. Esta es mi alerta:
No han liberado a nadie, todos han cumplido sus condenas. Los documentos de dos de ellos Manuel Perez Soria y Lazaro Moran, dicen que estan en la calle por cumplimiento de condena. No nos dejemos engañar con este truco de hacer ver que estan soltando presos, ellos cumplieron y mas del tiempo que debian cumplir, igual que Jorge Luis Garcia "Antunez"

Si los españoles quieren achacar esto a la visita de Moratinos, no se lo podemos permitir, por eso la palabra "liberacion" no la debemos usar, sino cumplimiento de condena que es lo cierto.
hay que estar alerta, ustedes saben que el gobierno cubano tiene un lenguaje virtual que confunde a todo el que se quiere dejar confundir. Un saludo de mbr

Martha Beatriz