Cuba announces massive prisoner release ahead of Pope's visit

Cuba announces massive prisoner release ahead of Pope's visit
Government says 3,522 prisoners will be released
Those guilty of violent crimes, crimes against state security excluded
Pardons are to take effect within 72 hours
By Mimi Whitefield
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

Cuba announced Friday that it would free 3,522 people from its jails —
one of the largest prisoner releases since the 1959 revolution — as a
gesture of goodwill to Pope Francis who arrives on the island next week
for a four-day visit.

The announcement, which appeared in state media Friday morning, said
that aside from a few humanitarian cases, the release would not include
prisoners convicted of violent crimes such as murder, rape and sexual
abuse of children, as well as those jailed for drug trafficking, illegal
slaughter of cattle or crimes against the security of the state. The
latter would seem to rule out many political prisoners who are often
charged with security offenses.

There also were prisoner releases on the eve of Pope John Paul II's 1998
visit to Cuba and a prisoner amnesty a few months before Pope Benedict
XVI's 2012 trip. Nearly 3,000 prisoners were released prior to
Benedict's visit and a much smaller number before John Paul visited.

The decision by Cuba's Council of State is expected to go into effect
within the next 72 hours. The government didn't release the names of
those who will be coming out of its jails.

But when selecting the prisoners for pardon, Granma, the Communist Party
newspaper, said consideration was given to those more than 60 years of
age and younger than 20 years if they had no prior convictions, women,
the chronically ill, and those nearing the end of their terms or on work
release programs.

There are also some foreigners in the group and the Foreign Ministry was
working with foreign diplomats to arrange their repatriations. Granma
reported that the government also was working with various government
entities to reintegrate the prisoners into society and get medical care
for those in need.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega told CNN that the release was a
"humanitarian gesture; we have received many letters."

The church, he said, gathered up all the requests for pardons it had
received from prisoners' families and submitted them to the Cuban
government for consideration for amnesty before the papal visit.

CubaNow, a Washington advocacy group that is working to end the embargo,
said that "by any measure, the Cuban government's decision to release
over 3,500 non-violent offenders ahead of Pope Francis' visit represents
progress. .... It is safe to say that this would not be happening if not
for the Holy Father's role in changing U.S.-Cuba relations, and the
progress that has been made since."

But South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wasn't impressed
by the gesture, calling it part of Cuba's "catch and release" program.
"We should remember many of these prisoners should not have been in jail
in the first place," she said in a statement.

Ros-Lehtinen noted that those found guilty of "crimes against state
security" were not included. "We should recognize this release for the
farce that it is and instead work to support Cuban pro-democracy leaders
instead of congratulating an empty gesture by a tyrannical regime," she
said.

CubaNow also said it was disappointed "by reports suggesting that
political prisoners may not be among those pardoned" prior to Francis'
visit. It urged the government to take those cases into consideration as
well as "a gesture of goodwill."

Despite the prisoner release prior to Benedict's visit, the Capitol Hill
Cubans blog said, "The cells were quickly refilled, including during
Pope Benedict XVI's trip itself, where a crackdown on democracy
activists resulted in some spending up to three years in prison, without
trial or charges."

The Cuban government has continued to arrest dissidents in the days and
weeks leading up to Francis' visit, but most are short-term detentions
and activists are often freed the same day they are detained. Dissidents
leaders also have complained that some of their numbers have been beaten
during the detentions.

The biggest Cuban prisoner release actually came during the presidency
of Jimmy Carter when Cuba agreed to free 3,600 political prisoners as
part of an effort by both governments to improve relations. A few
hundred more than that were actually released during the Carter opening
toward Cuba but the rapprochement effort ultimately fizzled over an
impasse on Cuba's intervention in Africa and the beginning of the Mariel
boatlift in 1980.

The prisoner release was announced on the same day a U.S. delegation was
in Havana for the first meeting of a bilateral commission on
normalization issues. The United States and Cuba renewed diplomatic
relations on July 20 after a gap of more than 54 years.

Granma published the news of the pardons on its front page in a summary
of actions taken by the Council of State during a Tuesday meeting, but
the story itself was played on page 3. In the summary, the prisoner
release was mentioned after news that the Grand Theater of Havana would
be renamed the Grand Theater of Havana Alicia Alonso in an homage to the
work of the famed Cuban ballerina and choreographer and that three Cuban
generals would be given the title of "heroes of the Republic of Cuba."

In comments on Granma's website, readers were generally supportive of
the action. A commenter named Ada said the release was "good news to
discuss on a day such as this, Sept. 11."

Source: Cuba announces massive prisoner release ahead of Pope's visit |
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