Freed Cuban Prisoners Vow Defiance

The New York Times reports: Flashing victory signs and expressing defiance, the first seven political prisoners released by President Raúl Castro of Cuba arrived in Madrid on July 13 and vowed to continue their opposition to the island’s Communist leadership.

The seven men, who left Cuba July 12 with their relatives on two commercial flights, were expected to be joined soon by additional members of the group of 52 prisoners that the Cuban government agreed to release last week. During a news conference in Madrid, the dissidents insisted that their surprise release should not be considered a propaganda victory for the Cuban leadership and that their work challenging the government would not let up. The dissidents, all of whom suffered health problems in prison, appeared in reasonable condition after seven years behind bars and were clean shaven and wearing freshly ironed shirts.

Léster González Pentón, an opposition journalist who was serving a 20-year prison term, said: “We don’t consider ourselves to have been manipulated. In a dialogue process something always has to give, but we didn’t give.”

He added: “Cuba deserves democracy and in a democracy there is room for all leanings to participate.”

Another journalist, Ricardo González Alfonso, wrote an Op-ed piece in The New York Times on July 16, Out of Prison, Still Not Free, which begins: I never imagined I would be born at the age of 60, at an altitude of several thousand feet above the Atlantic. That isn’t gibberish; it’s what I felt when I was released from jail in Cuba and exiled to Spain last Monday.