Cuba Agrees To Free A Third Of Its Political Prisoners

New York Times:

MEXICO CITY -- The Cuban government on Wednesday released five political prisoners and agreed to set 47 others free in the coming months, a dramatic move that may save the life of a prominent dissident who has been on a four-month-long hunger strike to push for the liberation of inmates.

The deal, which reduces the number of prisoners of conscience on the island by about a third, came after a meeting that included President Raul Castro of Cuba, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, and the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[brokerthanu]

06:16 PM on 07/08/2010

Oh no. They'll probably end up here working as spooks or mercenaries overseas.

[SigmundF]

06:48 PM on 07/08/2010

Those you call mercenaries only tries to get back their country of a man that has delivered it to international capital and capitalists and now is trying to add to the feast the US.

[winningticket]

08:04 PM on 07/08/2010

So you are anti-capitalist?

[Dan Stewart]

03:21 PM on 07/08/2010

One person that should be in a Cuban prison, but instead lives openly in Miami is Luis Posada Carriles. A former Central Intelligence Agency agent, Posada has been convicted of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Western hemisphere, including:

• The 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people

• The admitted involvement in a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots.

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

Why doesn't the U.S. arrest this terrorist?

[SigmundF]

06:46 PM on 07/08/2010

Posada has been "judged" several times for crimes he did not commit......... Wikipedia is a place where everyone can write what so ever..... then with not credibility........ Posada's only "crime" is to have been very close to make justice and execute the dictator castro...... he have made castro's live very insecure and made the coward dictator to change his life habits to avoid Cuban people justice by the hand of Posada.......... in response castro has moved all his power to get Posada dead or jailed accused of several fake accusations.......... Posada has been one of the few persons in the world that has been "judged" several times for same fake cause.

[winningticket]

07:57 PM on 07/08/2010

You really have an axe to grind don't you? Fight your own battles.

[Dan Stewart]

09:57 PM on 07/08/2010

"The bottom line is that the Justice Department is trying to hold him accountable for horrible acts of terrorism ... This trial will confirm what everybody already knows, (that) Luis Posada is a leading purveyor of terrorism.”

— Peter Kornbluh, National Security Archive, Feb 25, 2010 [

[davidwayneosedach]

12:51 PM on 07/08/2010

So what's going to happen to the released prisoners?

[SigmundF]

06:51 PM on 07/08/2010

They will be sent to spain in same way formers independence cuban fighters were sent to Spain by spaniard soldiers ...... among those spaniard soldiers was fidel castro's father!!!!!

[winningticket]

08:05 PM on 07/08/2010

Oh so now we have descended into speculating about Castro's lineage are we?

[sparky73]

12:38 PM on 07/08/2010

all I will say about Cuba is that the citizens that are trying to get out come to Miami and become rethugs. The progressive cubans are perfectly happy living under the Castro. Scr*w the rethug cubans...

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

01:19 PM on 07/08/2010

What exactly is progressive about living in a one party state run by a couple of geriatric, communist brothers?

[Max is Back]

11:25 AM on 07/08/2010

So he released 1/3 of the people who were in jail for comitting no crime. What about the other 2/3 of the prisoners of concience?

Chances are that these people will be botted out of their own country or re-arrested within the coming months. Nothing will change with this token gesture...

[winningticket]

06:19 PM on 07/08/2010

Would you be happier if they weren't released?

[Max is Back]

06:29 PM on 07/08/2010

I would be happier if freedom of concience existed and Thoughtcrime was limited to the pages of George Orwell's 1984...

This criticism is not limited to Cuba but fairly universal in nature. I strongly back Amnesty International's call for the release of all prisioners of concience and not just a few to score some brownie points once a decade with the international press or in exchange for easing of trade restrictions with the EU (as is the case here)...

I can't imagine Robert Mugabe getting as much mileage out of such a meager offer...

[ddanimal]

11:20 AM on 07/08/2010

Release them all, I say.

[winningticket]

06:24 PM on 07/08/2010

Agreed. And the US should release those that have been in jail for non-violent drug offenses.

[SigmundF]

07:02 PM on 07/08/2010

You very sick dude!!!!

[Jim Shaffer]

09:27 AM on 07/08/2010

Their prisons are too expensive for them to maintain so they're doing the logical thing. Too bad the US doesn't follow their example. Amnesty for all prisoners convicted of non violent crimes, except Bernie Madoff. They could save hundreds of millions.

[wikwox]

11:08 AM on 07/08/2010

Making sense again, are ye?

[Dan Stewart]

08:31 AM on 07/08/2010

Cuba holds about 160 political prisoners, from a population of 11 million, and Cuba imprisons its citizens overall at 1/4th the rate per capita as compared to the U.S.

The U.S. has the world’s highest incarceration rate and the world’s largest prison population. The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.

In April 2008 Cuba commuted virtually all death penalty cases to life sentences. The U.S. holds more than 3,000 prisoners condemned to death.

Cuba has not declared war on or invaded another country in more than 50 years. Whereas the U.S. has body counts of 2 million plus in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands dead and still counting in Iraq.

To the objective observer, there’s simply no comparison.

[Pandaforum]

09:02 AM on 07/08/2010

as usual, the blame Americans first crowd likes Cuba better than the US. Cuba admits to having 167 political prisoners, but the real number is much higher. they also recently killed a journalist in captivity. liberals like to ignore little things like that. or the fact that the liberals' hero che was the head of la cabana where he personally killed hundreds of political prisoners extra-judicially. but, to liberals, cuba is a paragon of virtue compared to America. that's why the flow is all one way from cuba to America. I guess some people just like our sinister system of Democracy. to the objective marxist, there's simply no comparison.

[John Ramsey001]

09:22 AM on 07/08/2010

Is not what he said not true?

[Shawn828]

09:47 AM on 07/08/2010

And we target known locations of journalists, we make light of civilian casualties, we have no problem with civilians murdered in a war-zone and the killings covered up. What about what our "friends" in Colombia and Honduras are up to? Why don't we say anything about their killings of protesters and opposition members who don't agree with the coup government? They wouldn't be doing it without our approval.

I'm also sure the Native Americans at Pine Ridge and other reservations can tell us much about teh attentions of the U.S. govt. Pointing out our problems isn't "blame America first", it's honest critique of what we do or what is done in our name. No one is saying Cuba is a "paragon of virtue", just that it isn't the monster it's made out to be, and we as a country aren't so innocent, either.

[PrasadD]

09:12 AM on 07/08/2010

Yes, there is no comparison. Cuba jails people for their dissent. They are political prisoners. US jails people for their crimes. If US follows Cuba, you could be in jail for this comment.

[Shawn828]

09:40 AM on 07/08/2010

Are we talking of the same U.S. where you can be renditioned to another country to be tortured without charge? Where peaceful protests are regularly met with force, and even reporters covering the events are jailed for asking questions, or filming the events? The one where you can be held indefinitely on nothing more than the accusation of being an "enemy combatant", held incommunicado, and they don't even have to tell anyone they have you? Where it is a crime to verbally advocate for an organization that has been declared a terrorist organization whether you know of the designation or not? There is a comparison to be made.

[Dan Stewart]

02:02 PM on 07/08/2010

Before you say that there are no political prisoners in Cuba, or you can't be jailed in the U.S. for dissent. Better take a look at this:

"The Reality of Political Prisoners in the United States"
Criminal Justice Institute
Harvard Law School, Harvard University

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/blj/vol18/soffiyah.pdf”

[Caru]

08:17 AM on 07/08/2010

OT:

If politicians don't keep their campaign promises, then how is it really a democracy?

[Caru]

08:15 AM on 07/08/2010

I wonder how many the US has.

[PrasadD]

09:15 AM on 07/08/2010

ZERO

[winningticket]

06:22 PM on 07/08/2010

Tell that to Leonard Peltier.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

08:12 AM on 07/08/2010

52 more votes for Rubio!!!

[messy]

08:03 AM on 07/08/2010

Not enough. They should free them ALL.

[winningticket]

06:32 PM on 07/08/2010

It still wouldn't be enough to your satisfaction.

[northstar11]

07:18 AM on 07/08/2010

the US can regain the upper hand by releasing half being held for marijuana possession.

[mcmutter]

07:51 AM on 07/08/2010

BRAVQ !!!

take the petty (non-felony) drug users OUT of prison ..... save 100s of MILLIONS of $$$$$$$

[Hirnlego]

07:04 AM on 07/08/2010

Political prisons is a damn disgrace

[BurritoT]

06:10 AM on 07/08/2010

This embargo we have on Cuba should have ended the day the Soviet Union collapsed. For me, I would never have put an embargo on them to begin with.

Here we do plenty of business with China, Russia, and Vietnam and those countries have actually taken American lives by the tens of thousands (well not so much Russia but they still did enough damage.)

[messy]

08:04 AM on 07/08/2010

You have to remember that the Castro Brothers were trying to hijack the nuclear weapons sent there back in 1962, which is the reason for the boycott.

[winningticket]

06:23 PM on 07/08/2010

Yes that was 1962. But, it's now the year 2010. Lift the embargo!