Cuba frees prisoner, Spain sees goodwill gesture

Cuba frees prisoner, Spain sees goodwill gesture
Published on Wednesday, October 21, 2009
By Esteban Israel

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuba's government has released one of its
estimated 200 political prisoners in a gesture of goodwill following a
visit by Spain's foreign minister, Cuban dissidents and Spanish
diplomats said on Tuesday.

Spain portrayed the release as a vindication of its policy of
engagement, instead of confrontation, with the communist-led island that
has resisted outside pressures to change since the 1959 revolution that
put Fidel Castro in power.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos (R) is greeted by Cuban
President Raul Castro (L) in Havana. AFP PHOTO
Nelson Aguiar, a 64-year-old electrician who was sentenced to 13 years
in prison in a 2003 government crackdown on opponents, was freed on
Tuesday morning and is back with his family in Havana, dissidents told
Reuters.

In addition, Cuba agreed to release from jail a Spanish businessman
accused of paying off Cuban officials. But he must remain in Cuba for
his trial, diplomats said.

Cuban dissidents said that, officially, Aguiar was released for health
reasons.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Cuban government, which
presents dissidents as US-aided traitors and says it has no political
prisoners.

Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights
said the release was a gesture to Spain, whose foreign minister, Miguel
Angel Moratinos, completed a two-day visit to Havana on Monday.

Moratinos, who met Cuban President Raul Castro on Monday, did not meet
with dissidents during his visit because he told reporters he was in
Cuba to "strengthen bilateral relations."

He said he and Raul Castro, who replaced elder brother Fidel Castro as
president last year, discussed human rights "in general terms."

"It's the same thing as always: the Castros giving prisoners as gifts,"
said Sanchez. A recent report by his commission said Cuba has 208
political prisoners.

A Spanish diplomat in Havana said the prisoner release was the product
of what Moratinos called the "new political reality" between Spain and
its former colony.

"It's our position that this is the result of a policy of dialogue
followed by Spain on a basis of respect," the diplomat, who asked not to
be named, said.

Moratinos had faced criticism at home in Spain for not meeting with
dissidents during his visit to Cuba.

Spain, which is tied with Canada as the island's third-biggest trading
partner, is set to take over the revolving presidency of the European
Union in January.

Moratinos said that during its six-month EU presidency term Spain hoped
to eliminate a 1996 EU resolution that predicated dialogue with Cuba on
its transition to a multi-party democracy, which has irritated the
one-party Cuban state.

The EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba after the 2003 government
crackdown in which 75 dissidents, including Aguiar, were imprisoned.

But at the urging of Spain and others, the EU lifted the sanctions and
re-established cooperation with Cuba last year.

Sanchez said the Cuban authorities also had given permission to another
former prisoner, Omelio Lazaro Angulo, to leave the country.

Cuba has released prisoners before as a result of meetings with foreign
officials, including one such case in 1996 when three were freed after
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, then a US congressman, met with
Fidel Castro.

Caribbean Net News: Cuba frees prisoner, Spain sees goodwill gesture (21
October 2009)
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/article.php?news_id=19425