Miami, United States. – The bishop of Havana, Eloy Ricardo Domínguez, said this week that the recent decision of the president of the United States, Donald Trumpto return to include Cuba in the list of sponsors of terrorism should not hinder the release of prisoners initiated by the regime of the island, a process that arose after negotiations with the Vatican and that the authorities described as an act “unilateral and sovereign” .
Domínguez, who is also responsible for attending the ties of the Church with the penitentiary population, told the agency Reuters: “The liberation of prisoners in Cuba will continue.”
However, between human rights and family groups of those imprisoned increase the uncertainty about whether the process will continue. Organizations such as Cubalex and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) have expressed their fears that Cuba’s reinstatement to the “blacklist” generates a high in release.
Cubalex He warned on Wednesday: “The Cuban government has not officially informed if the release process will continue”, emphasizing in a statement the reigning uncertainty and the use of the freedom of prisoners as a possible “piece of a political game between the regime of Havana and Washington” .
The NGO also highlighted the “denial of the existence of political prisoners” by the authorities, who do not recognize that category. However, convictions against dissidents and the effort of the Catholic Church itself show otherwise.
Relatives of several political prisoners also confirmed Martí News His restlessness. Some claim to have heard rumors in prisons that “no other political prisoner will come out.” Félix Navarro, former member of the 75 group of black spring and released last Saturday, said that “the military is transmitting to the criminal population that they will not free anyone else.” Navarro is still concerned about his daughter, Saily, who remains in prison after being arrested next to him in July 2021.
For his part, Wilber Aguilar, father of one of the young people sanctioned by the protests of July 11, 2021, said he had not managed to communicate with his son imprisoned in the east combined: “Nobody knows anything here because they [las autoridades] They never have us. He who says he knows something is a lie. ”
Jorge García, father of another 11J protester, agreed on the concern: “I thought that at this time I would be released, but this situation has been a fraud. At no time have they communicated with us or told us anything. ”
To date, the NGO Cubalex accounts for 172 people benefiting from release, 24 of them women and 147 men, in addition to a person from the LGBTIQ+community. However, the government has not provided total figures or verifiable details. On January 16, authorities announced the release of 127 inmates between Wednesday and Thursday, but without offering punctual information.
Cubalex concluded by underlining the need for greater transparency and legality, and defended that: “freedom should not be used as a currency or presented as a humanitarian gesture after years of unjustified suffering.”
