| By Anita Snow, Associated Press |
Calling the inmates, "counterrevolutionaries,'' Cuba's Prensa
Latina news service said they must stay in custody for "reasons of
national security, dangerousness or the gravity of the crimes
committed.''
The news agency, monitored in Mexico City, said the 70 included
Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran arrested last year in a series
of Havana hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist.
Cuba announced Thursday it was releasing dozens of prisoners in
response to Vatican appeals, giving John Paul the first major
concrete success of his historic pilgrimage last month to the
communist island.
Those released include some dissidents, whose plight was
underlined by the pontiff's dramatic plea in Cuba to free
"prisoners of conscience.''
The release was first announced by the Vatican, which said Cuba
called it "an act of clemency and good will in memory'' of John
Paul's five-day visit to the island last month.
It was later confirmed by the Cuban government, which said
dozens of prisoners were in the process of being freed and more
than 200 soon would be.
The names of the prisoners freed were not released, and it
remained unclear today how many were political prisoners. Human
rights groups say that Cuba holds at least 500 political prisoners.
During his trip to the Caribbean island, John Paul pushed for
expanded freedom and tried to pave the way for the Roman Catholic
Church to play a greater role in Cuban society after nearly four
decades of communism.
The Vatican presented a list of several hundred prisoners,
including dissidents, gathered from families and human rights
organizations.
Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez on Thursday
said that 106 of them "were already at liberty. Several dozen more
soon will be put at liberty through a pardon, which is in the
process of being applied.''
He said still others will be pardoned in line with a Vatican
appeal for clemency for other prisoners not on Vatican lists.