UPDATED, April 22, 2011 — Efraín Rivas Hernández was paroled April 21, 2011.
Information on Cuban political prisoners is sometimes scarce. After all, the Castro dictatorship only releases information on particular prisoners if it feels that doing so gives it a political advantage.
That appeals to be the case with three political prisoners profiled this week, Marcelino Rodríguez Vázquez, Joel Cano Díaz and Efraín Roberto Rivas Hernández.
In prison since 1996, the dictatorship has branded them as "terrorists," after they were caught trying to illegally enter Cuba. One Cuban government website says they rode in a speedboat and fired shots at a tourist hotel in Varadero.
After trials that were certainly lacking of due process and any other semblance of fairness, Rodríguez, Cano and Rivas were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Cano and Rivas got 20 years, and Rodríguez got 25 years, according to the unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN)
other opposition groups list them. The consideration is even more important as reports filter out from Cuba that more releases may be imminent once the current round is complete.
However you answer, just don't let how the dictatorship judges them to be your guide.
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