Cuba’s most famous political prisoner, the dissident poet Raúl Rivero, was on Tuesday released by Fidel Castro’s regime after serving 18 months of a 20-year sentence.
Rivero, whose family had complained that he was sick and was being mistreated in jail, arrived back at his Havana home on what his wife described as medical parole.
”I don’t have any plans for the future,” Rivero said. ”I’m still confused.”
Rivero was sentenced to 20 years in jail last year on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow Castro. He was one of 75 people given sentences of six to 28 years following a March 2003 crackdown on the opposition. The poet described the releases as ”a gesture by the government to lower the tensions a bit”.
On Monday three prominent dissidents who had suffered illnesses in jail, Oscar Espinosa, Marcelo Lopez and Margarito Broche, were also released. Seven others have been released this year.
Castro’s government made no public statement about the releases, which come days after the foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, announced a resumption of contacts with Spain.
Spain’s Socialist prime minister, José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, has lobbied for Rivero’s release while softening his country’s line on Cuba.
Human rights groups welcomed the releases but pointed out that 60 more dissidents remained behind bars.
”Of course we welcome the release of these four men,” Amnesty International spokesperson Sarah Green said. ”We remain very concerned that all 75 … were imprisoned purely for their beliefs and, as such, all should be unconditionally and immediately released.”
”By granting them parole only, the Cuban government leaves open the possibility of returning the dissidents to prison,” said José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch. – Guardian Unlimited Â