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Cuba jails hundreds of
political prisoners
The
Miami Herald editorial, Thursday, July
1, 2004.
KEEP PRESSURING THE
REGIME FOR THEIR RELEASE
We welcome the release of 10 ailing political
prisoners from Cuban jails in the last two
months. Better yet would be for the regime
to release the more than 300 political prisoners,
beginning with dissidents suffering life-threatening
illness.
Does the regime's move to release these
few captives signal a softening of the police
state? Not at all. This is a calculated
return to tired tactics: When the heat is
on, the dictator frees prisoners who shouldn't
have been imprisoned in the first place.
Often the releases are presented as ''gifts''
to prominent visitors, such as the pope,
Jesse Jackson and Gabriel García
Márquez.
Transition to democracy
Squeezed by international pressure since
its crackdown last year, the regime now
is trying to mend fences with Europe and
other allies. As a bonus, with its releases
the regime lessens the risk of an ailing
dissident dying in prison -- and the resulting
bad press. It also gets some dissidents
to leave Cuba.
The point is this: International pressure
shouldn't relent until the Cuban government
has freed every political prisoner and respects
political, civil and human rights. It should
continue until a transition to freedom and
democracy has begun.
The regime's relations with allies were
strained precisely because of its dragnet
last year in which 75 dissidents were tried
summarily and sentenced to an average of
19-year terms. Their ''crimes''? Loaning
books from home libraries, collecting signatures
for a petition, publicly voicing the ugly
truth about totalitarian Cuba.
Consider, for example, Manuel Vázquez
Portal, the latest dissident released. An
independent journalist who published stories
abroad, he was condemned to 18 years. His
account of cruel prison conditions, which
was smuggled out of the prison, was published
on The Herald's Other Views page and in
other publications last year. Though he
suffers high blood pressure and emphysema,
he sees other motives in his good fortune.
''It's part of the Cuban government's flirtation
with the international community in search
of propaganda,'' Mr. Vázquez Portal,
52, said last week after his release.
Yet there remain high-profile dissidents
of advanced age and with threatening illnesses
who should not be kept in dank cells or
have medical care withheld in Cuba prisons.
Among them are Oscar Elías Biscet,
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Héctor Palacios,
Raúl Rivero and Martha Beatriz Roque.
Push for their freedom
Last year's crackdown earned the regime
worldwide condemnation. The more than 300
political prisoners on the island include
about 80 viewed as ''prisoners of conscience''
by Amnesty International -- the most in
our hemisphere. The push for their freedom
must be continued by labor, human-rights,
religious and political groups worldwide.
More Latin American na tions must add their
voices to those of the European Union, the
United States and Canada in pressing Cu
ba for democratic changes.
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