Pardoning of prisoners another empty gesture from an unchanged Cuba

Pardoning of prisoners another empty gesture from an unchanged Cuba
Miami Herald September 15, 2015

The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Monday, Sept. 14:

Saturday, Pope Francis arrives in Cuba. Last Friday, Cuba announced it's
pardoning 3,522 prisoners. Cause and effect in action - and that's about
all this gesture from the Cuban government likely means.

No need to speculate on whether this is a real sign that after 56 years
the Castro regime is finally easing its grip on 11 million Cubans - as
is the desired result following the U.S. announcement in December of
thawing diplomatic ties with the island. That's just not how
dictatorships work.

It's well known that Cuba empties and fills its jails according to
what's politically expedient - and makes it look like a benevolent
government to the outside world, especially just before the
international spotlight shines on the island.

Those set to be pardoned are men and women, young and old or infirm who
are first-time offenders who committed nonviolent crimes. But none of
the regime's thousands of political prisoners are among them. We hope
the pope has something to say about that. After all, recent figures show
arrests and detentions on the island continue unabated.

It's not the first time Cuba has made a show of releasing prisoners - a
favorite bargaining tool of the Castro brothers.

In 1978, Fidel Castro released almost 3,800 political prisoners in a
deal with President Jimmy Carter's administration. Before that, of
course, there was a deal brokered for the release of the Cubans captured
during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Cuba got $10 million in medical
supplies.

And twice before, in advance of papal visits, the Cuban government has
released prisoners, all for show before filling the jails again after
the pope's plane went wheels up.

In 1998, Fidel Castro released 300 prisoners ahead of Pope John Paul
II's visit. And in 2011, Raul Castro released nearly 3,100 ahead of Pope
Benedict XVI's visit.

A month after the U.S. announced it would reestablish diplomatic ties
with the island, Cuba, as a show of good will, released 53 dissidents.
Many of the prisoners, it turned out, had nearly served their sentences
or been released months earlier. In other words, it was an empty gesture.

But those who know the machinations of the Cuban government think the
latest prisoner-release announcement was moved up to distract the
international press. Thursday, Castro's partner in repression,
Venezuela, handed renowned democracy leader, Leopoldo Lopez, a 13-year
prison sentence - an outrage for a political dissident guilty of no real
crime, just that of opposing President Nicolas Maduro's regime.

International headlines Friday should have been about Lopez's
sentencing. Instead they trumpeted how nice Cuba is to be releasing
prisoners. Well-played.

What Cuba really wants is economic growth. The regime wants to open its
doors to U.S. business, investment and tourism as China and Vietnam have
done. What it doesn't want is its citizens speaking out against the
government.

But it's incumbent upon the United States to make clear that Cuba can't
have the former without eliminating its restrictions on the latter;
without freeing its political prisoners, incarcerated on trumped-up
charges and tried in kangaroo courts.

U.S. diplomacy hinges on the belief that normalizing diplomatic ties and
trade with nations like Cuba will change everything. But that has yet to
be seen.

Cuba must to do more than these fake gestures of prisoner releases and
offer up real, and permanent, human-rights reform.

Source: Pardoning of prisoners another empty gesture from an unchanged
Cuba | Opinion Columnists | IslandPacket.com -
http://www.islandpacket.com/2015/09/15/3926324_pardoning-of-prisoners-another.html?rh=1