A top Cuban religious leader has expressed confidence that many Cuban political prisoners remaining in jails will be released by the country’s communist government “in coming months”.
“There exists a firm promise that these political prisoners will be freed,” Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega told the faithful during a Church service.
Cardinal Ortega was referring to a group of 52 political prisoners jailed during a 2003 crackdown against of critics of then-President Fidel Castro.
Most of these dissidents have already been released, but 11 remain in jail pending decisions on their fate.
The Cardinal said he was confident the remaining government opponents will not remain behind bars for long.
“I have moral certainty that in coming months, we will see the release not only of these prisoners, but also of a larger group of people punished for their political acts or positions,” Cardinal Ortega said.
He noted that some of the inmates planned to leave Cuba for the United States, and some wanted to remain on the island, but did not offer specifics.
The Catholic Church, which has been brokering deals on prisoners’ releases with the Castro regime, announced late last month that two more Cuban political prisoners were set to be released and sent to Spain.
The prisoners are not among 52 jailed dissidents Cuba agreed to free earlier this year under a landmark deal.
In a brief statement, the cardinal’s office said Miguel Vidal and Hector Larroque had agreed to leave Cuba for Spain once they are let out of jail at a date yet to be announced.
Mr Vidal, it said, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 on charges of violence and terrorism, while Mr Larroque was serving a 22-year sentence for weapons possession and trying to leave the country illegally in 2000.
Of the 52 dissidents President Raul Castro agreed to let go in July following talks with Cardinal Ortega, 40 have emigrated to Spain with their families, and one was freed in Cuba.
Dissident sources say around 100 political prisoners remain in Cuban prisons, in addition to the 11 that Mr Castro has already agreed to free.
But the communist government finds itself under mounting pressure to act on its promises.
In early December, female relatives of jailed political dissidents held an unprecedented protest outside Cuban jails, angry that the government has not met its pledge.
The women, belonging to the Ladies in White group, marched carrying flowers and chanting “Freedom for the prisoners! and “Zapata lives!” – a reference to Orlando Zapata, a dissident who died in February after an 85 day-long hunger strike.
The women marched unopposed outside two prisons and the national Directorate of Prisons.
While the women were not harassed by government supporters at the prison, members of the group were surrounded and heckled by a crowd in downtown Havana.
Meanwhile, some 50 political dissidents were briefly arrested last month in different parts of the country to prevent public protests, said rights leader Elizardo Sanchez.
“These are preventive detentions, lasting just a few hours, but still unacceptable,” Mr Sanchez said.