HAVANA: Cuba agreed to release 52 political prisoners Wednesday, in a breakthrough church-state deal set to yield the biggest prisoner release since President Raul Castro formally took the reins of power in 2008.
The release, to include five dissidents, exceeds a bold demand by a hunger-striker near death that some two dozen ill political prisoners be freed in the only one-party communist regime in the Americas.
The breakthrough talks were led in their later stages Wednesday by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who said the pending move by the Castro government opens "a new era" in communist Cuba.
"We are quite satisfied. A new era is opening in Cuba, with the will to settle once and for all the political prisoner issue," the visiting top Spanish diplomat said optimistically in his first public reaction to news.
The pending release of the 52 -- who were part of a group of 75 dissidents rounded up in 2003 and sentenced to jail terms of six to 28 years -- was announced at a meeting of Castro, Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Moratinos, a statement from the Archdiocese of Havana said.
The remaining 47 dissidents will be freed within the next three to four months by the island`s Communist authorities, Roman Catholic church officials said in a statement.
The Cuban government has insisted it would not be "blackmailed."
But it is also keen to throw international attention off the case of hunger striker Guillermo Farinas, protesting with his life on the line; his and other recent hunger strikes are huge political embarrassments for Havana, drawing an international outcry.
The church statement did not identify the political prisoners to be freed, nor did it mention Farinas, who is said to be near death from a months-long hunger strike.
News of the dissidents` imminent release came after Spain`s top diplomat met with Cuban leaders to try to free the ailing political prisoners and save Farinas`s life. Bishop Arturo Gonzalez visited with the hunger striker and was told Farinas was waiting for now.
The statement from Cardinal Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, said Ortega was informed that in the coming hours, the five prisoners "will be released and will leave shortly for Spain in the company of their families."
Farinas`s deteriorating condition has been reported, unusually, in the official communist party newspaper Granma in what observers say is an attempt to defuse international criticism should he die.
He has been refusing food since February while demanding the release of 25 political prisoners with failing health.
Farinas said he could end his strike when at least five political prisoners are on Cuban streets, having dropped his original demand for all of a group of 25 once church mediation was under way.
"I am skeptical. Until our brothers are on the street, we do not trust the authorities," said Farinas, 48, a psychologist and online journalist, by phone from the central city of Santa Clara.
Other foes of the government voiced skepticism and surprise at the number.
"I am stunned -- we were expecting 10, 12 maybe 15 to be freed and then maybe in six months some more," said Laura Pollan, a leader of the Ladies in White group of family members of the 75 political prisoners picked up in the 2003 sweep.
"I will believe it when I see all 75 out on the street," she said.
The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission (CCDHRN) -- an outlawed but tolerated dissident information clearinghouse -- estimates there are 167 political prisoners in the Caribbean nation of more than 11 million people.
The church began a dialogue with the government on May 19 in the face of hunger strikes that drew attention to the plight of dissident prisoners. As a result of the talks, one prisoner was released and another 12 were transferred to facilities closer to their families.
Moratinos has said if his visit was a success, it would help toward lifting the EU common position on Cuba, which has, since 1996, conditioned relations between the European Union and Havana on progress in human rights here.
BDST: 0835 HRS, July 8, 2010
