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01:39 a.m. Jan 27, 1998 Eastern
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA
(Reuters) - Cuba's Roman Catholic Church and dissidents predict that Fidel
Castro's government would soon release some political prisoners in response to
Pope John Paul II's visit to the island.
"We delivered a list to the authorities with more than 200 names. We
will continue insisting on this, and we expect the government will release
some,'' a spokesman for the Havana archbishop's office, Fernando de la Vega,
told Reuters.
Leading dissident and human rights campaigner Elizardo Sanchez also
predicted a "positive reply soon,'' but he said the world should not expect
any "miraculous overnight changes'' in Cuba's rights record.
Dissidents say that about 500 prisoners of conscience are held in Cuban
jails.
The government denies that it has imprisoned anyone for their beliefs. But
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon confirmed during a CNN interview
Sunday that the government would "consider'' a Vatican request for a
release of prisoners, delivered during the pope's five-day visit that ended
Sunday.
De la Vega said Fidel Castro's government may release some prisoners "then
hope the rest are forgotten about,'' but he pledged that the church—enjoying
a new high-profile after the pontiff's trip—would continue to press their
case.
He said the papal trip had been a "marvelous success'' which had left
the church "happy, satisfied and very hopeful for the future.''
Denied for decades the ability to operate freely in Cuba, the church gained
unprecedented exposure and public support during the pontiff's visit.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans attended the pope's four open-air Masses,
which were transmitted live on state-run television—a first for religious
events.
De la Vega said the visit had allowed the church to emerge into Cuba's
public life "like tooth paste in a tube which can't be pushed back once
it's come out.'' He added: "It was a very positive visit for the church.
You will have to talk now about (the situation in) Cuba before and after the
pope's trip.''
During his visit, the pope urged the government to allow greater political
and religious freedom on the island, which has been a one-party communist state
since shortly after Castro's 1959 revolution.
Sanchez said the pope's exhortations were unlikely to prompt radical,
overnight change: "The Cuban government has a lot of work to do ...
(it) does not respect any civil or political rights that are recognized in
international law.''
But he said the trip may help speed a process begun two years ago of
releasing political prisoners, whose numbers have already halved from 1,000 then
to 500 now.
As the thousands of journalists and pilgrims who descended on Cuba for the
pope's visit began heading out of the country, the state-run weekly newspaper
Trabajadores (Workers) echoed Castro's mockery Sunday of those who had predicted
the visit by the pope, sometimes called an "exterminating angel'' of
communism, would undermine the government.
"The warm and respectful reception the Cuban people gave the pope
enabled him to fulfill successfully his busy program of activities, contrary to
those who predicted or even dreamed of apocalyptic events,'' it said in a
front-page story Monday.
After seeing the pope off late Sunday, Castro dined with local and foreign
church leaders.
Until Castro held a meeting in December with Cuba's bishops, it had been 12
years since he formally held talks with the church leadership on the island.
The Cuban church said a total of at least 750,000 people had attended the
pope's Masses, with between 600,000 and 700,000 at the Havana service Sunday,
and around 50,000 at earlier Masses in the provincial cities of Santa Clara,
Camaguey and Santiago.
Crowd estimates by journalists were much lower, with 300,000 given for the
Havana Mass.
"The pope was very happy. I had the impression that he didn't want to
leave us ... it was almost as if he was reliving what he had lived in Poland,''
said de la Vega, referring to the pope's 1979 and 1983 visits to his homeland
that helped bring the fall in communism in Eastern Europe.
While it was too early to speculate on concrete changes that would come from
the trip, de la Vega said the Church would now enter "stage B, a
reorganization and changes of structure'' to take advantage of the impact of the
pope's visit.
U.S. pilgrim Steve O'Toole, who was leaving Monday with another 400 American
Catholics who flew to Cuba from New York and attended the Havana Mass, said he
hoped the visit would prompt both internal and external improvements for Cuba.
"These have to be the most innocent, sweet people I've ever met. The
people are just wonderful, and I really wish this embargo could be lifted,'' he
said, referring to Washington's 35-year economic blockade on Cuba.
In his speeches in Cuba, the pope mixed stern criticism of the Castro
government with outspoken attacks on the embargo, saying it struck
indiscriminately, especially at the poor. |