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.c The Associated Press
By ANITA SNOW
HAVANA (AP) -
Cuba is seriously considering Pope John Paul II's appeal to free some prisoners,
the National Assembly speaker said, suggesting there could be sentence
reductions or early releases on humanitarian grounds.
"The request will be considered in all seriousness, above all given the
way in which it was made and who made it,'' Speaker Ricardo Alarcon said in
comments carried Wednesday by the state-run Prensa Latina news agency.
John Paul made the call for Cuba to release its "prisoners of
conscience'' in one of the bluntest political messages of his five-day visit to
Cuba. Vatican officials also appealed during the visit for clemency on behalf of
several hundred Cuban prisoners, both political detainees and common criminals.
In his Prensa Latina remarks, Alarcon suggested there could be sentence
reductions or early releases on humanitarian grounds for aged or ill prisoners
convicted of common crimes or other offenses. He characterized the pope's
request as an "appeal for clemency by the pope similar to those he has made
in many places'' on his foreign travels.
Michael E. Ranneberger, head of the Cuban Affairs Office for the U.S. State
Department, told The Associated Press in an interview in Havana Wednesday that
he hoped - as the pontiff requested - that any inmates released would be allowed
to stay in the country.
Fidel Castro's communist government has honored requests to release
prisoners, but has always insisted that they immediately leave the country.
"The question is whether they will be allowed to return to Cuban
society,'' Ranneberger said. "If that happens, that will be a considerable
change, not just window dressing.''
Many Cuban prisoners this week were being allowed rare family visits, as an
apparent concession to the pontiff, both Cuban and American officials here said.
In its Wednesday editions, USA Today quoted Alarcon as saying that Cuba
would free some prisoners in a goodwill gesture to John Paul. However, Prensa
Latina's account of Alarcon's remarks indicated no decision had been made.
In Rome, the Vatican said it was still waiting for a response to John Paul's
appeal. The Vatican did not make public a list of names or specify the number of
prisoners that should be released.
Human rights activists and dissidents have said they are hoping for the
release of as many as 200 people they call political prisoners. Those activists
complain that conditions for inmates in Cuba's prison system have worsened with
the country's economic crisis.
Many inmates share cells with bunk beds stacked three high, and a typical
breakfast is sugar water and bread. Contagious diseases like tuberculosis are
not always treated, human rights groups contend.
While Cuban officials acknowledge prison conditions have worsened in recent
years, they say it is the result of an economic crisis affecting all Cubans.
They deny that prisoners are physically or psychologically tortured.
Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official praised Guatemala on Wednesday for
ending a 37-year break in diplomatic ties with Cuba and suggested the decision
struck yet another blow at U.S. policies to isolate the communist country -
policies John Paul criticized during his visit.
John Paul called for greater freedoms in Cuba but also slapped at the U.S.
economic embargo. "May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open
itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba,'' the pontiff
said in opening the historic visit.
Guatemala explicitly cited the papal exhortation in announcing its intention
Tuesday to become the 163rd nation to recognize Cuba.
Guatemala's decision "is extremely important, because it confirms that
the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba is in acute crisis,'' Assistant Foreign
Minister Jorge Bolanos told Prensa Latina.
"I have great hopes that trade between Cuba and Guatemala could
increase significantly in the next two years as a result of the new relations,''
Bolanos said.
The pope, in his first public statements since returning to the Vatican from
Cuba, said the visit recalled his 1979 mission to Poland - a pilgrimage many
historians say helped bring down communism in his homeland.
"I wish for our brothers and sisters on that beautiful island that the
fruits of this pilgrimage will be similar to the fruits of that pilgrimage in
Poland,'' John Paul said Wednesday in Polish to countrymen attending his weekly
general audience.
AP-NY-01-28-98 2011EST |