President Barack Obama is reportedly preparing to announce changes in the rules governing travel to Cuba, apparently in response to the recent release of more than 20 political prisoners.
Before he does so, he might want to consider the assessment of the three prisoners who were released this week.
The Latin American Herald Tribune reports:MADRID – The three ex-political prisoners from Cuba who arrived Tuesday in Madrid with members of their families do not believe that their release signifies any liberalization on the part of Cuba’s communist government.
In a statement to the press at the hotel where they are staying, Efren Fernandez Fernandez, Regis Iglesias Ramirez and Marcelo Cano Rodriguez agreed on calling their release from jail a “whitewash for the image” of the Raul Castro government.
“The release does not mean that the regime is becoming more liberal – what it is doing is a strategy to gain time. In the last few days it has shown that there is a criminal repression of dissidence in Cuba,” Fernandez said.
He cited the harassment of the mother of political prisoner Orlando Zapato Tamayo, who died Feb. 23 after an 85-day hunger strike.
“I will continue fighting for the freedom of my land,” Fernandez said with regard to his new life in Spain.
His fellow countryman Iglesias said that change will come to Cuba when there exists “a transparent process of dialogue that involves all Cuban people of all ideological tendencies, both on the island and in exile.”
Rodriguez, meanwhile, told Efe of his “joy” at being free, but also of his sadness about the situation in Cuba.
He thanked Cuba’s Catholic hierarchy and the Spanish government for their intervention, which he termed “positive.”
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