While the Cuban government remains silent over Antonio Villarreal, Léster González Pentón, Luis Milán, José Luis García Paneque, and Pablo Pacheco Ávila—the five imprisoned Cuban journalists and dissidents to be released soon—the media are filled with headlines declaring victory for many.
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Some consider the Catholic Church as the major winner in the expected releases, which are to eventually include 47 other political detainees. Others highlight Guillermo Fariñas, a dissident on a hunger strike for the last four months. The majority link the latest developments to dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s death, the courage of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), and Fariñas’ hunger strike.
The real cause, in fact, is more than five decades of economic failure that led the tropical dictatorship to the worst crisis in its history, one that will lead to the nation’s collapse without new subsidies.
By releasing 52 dissidents out of an overall 75 prisoners of conscience, the Cuban government would sort out certain obstacles. First, it would silence demands by
The release of political prisoners is certainly great news. At this time, we only have five dissidents going into exile, and the promise to free more. It’s important to see what happens in the next three or four months, a period in which the government agreed to release 47 dissidents. It is important to see what will happen if Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos does not gather enough votes in the European Parliament to eliminate the Common Position, or if Representative Peterson does not get his bill passed in the U.S. Congress.
On the other hand, it will be interesting to see whether the “fruitful” dialogue with the church leads to dialogue with Cubans on the island, and whether they are finally granted the freedom and rights they have been deprived. Only then we will be able to speak of the victory of Zapata’s ideals, the efforts of Guillermo Fariñas, the group of 75, the Damas de Blanco, and thousands of Cubans who have fueled this movement towards freedom and respect for human rights.
Vázquez Portal, a Cuban writer and journalist, was arrested in March 2003 and served more than a year in prison. A 2003 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee, he now lives in exile in Miami.
En liberaciones cubanas, la victoria proviene del fracaso
Mientras el régimen cubano guarda silencio sobre el destierro de Antonio Villarreal, Léster Pentón, Luis Milían, José Luis García Paneque y Pablo Pacheco, y la promesa de liberación de otros 47 presos políticos que anunciara el miércoles en un comunicado el Arzobispado de la Habana, los medios de prensa están abarrotados de titulares que distribuyen éxitos a diestras y siniestra.