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Cuba to free 3,522 prisoners ahead of Pope Francis's visit Cuba to free 3,522 prisoners ahead of Pope Francis's visit
(about 2 hours later)
Cuba will pardon and release 3,522 prisoners ahead of next week’s visit by Pope Francis, the third time the country has granted inmates freedom before a papal visit. Cuba will release more than 3,500 prisoners ahead of Pope Francis’s visit next week in the latest sign of warming relations between the island and the Catholic church.
Related: Pope Francis will meet Fidel Castro in Cuba – if ex-president's health allows State media announced the pardons would be made within the next three days. They follow dozens of other releases since a Vatican-brokered deal between Cuba and the US last December to restore diplomatic relations.
There was no immediate indication whether those to be pardoned included people considered political prisoners by dissidents or human rights organisations. The latest 3,522 prisoners to be freed will include minors, people over the age of 60, prisoners in poor health and foreigners who will be repatriated, according to the Granma newspaper.
Cuba, which officially denies it has political prisoners, said those convicted of crimes against state security would not be among the 3,522 to be pardoned and released within three days. Cuban cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino said the choice was made on compassionate grounds, such as family problems and health issues rather than the type of crimes committed. “It’s a humanitarian gesture,” he told CNN.
“On the occasion of the visit by His Holiness Pope Francis, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba (the highest governmental body)... agreed to pardon 3,522 prisoners, chosen due by the nature of the acts for which they were jailed, their behavior in prison, the time of punishment and health concerns,” the official daily Granma said on Friday. The releases are consistent with Cuba’s actions ahead of two previous papal visits. In 1998, 299 prisoners were released before a visit by Pope John Paul II and in 2012, 2,900 were freed ahead of a visit by Pope Benedict XVI.
The exemptions would rule out freedom for some of the estimated 60 people identified as political prisoners by the dissident Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. But they come at a particularly significant time as Cuba and the US move to end one of the world’s last cold war conflicts. The two nations opened embassies in each other’s capitals in July for the first time in 54 years.
Among these 60 are seven armed anti-government infiltrators, about a dozen who hijacked or attempted to hijack a plane or boats to leave the country, four armed soldiers and a civilian collaborator who helped them try to desert, and others accused of violence or spying. Fifty-three inmates who were considered political prisoners by dissident groups and the US were released in January as part of the deal reached the previous month by presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama.
However, the commission also says about two dozen peaceful political activists are held as political prisoners on the communist-ruled Caribbean island. Another 60 are still in jail, according to the dissident Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Among the most celebrated is artist Danilo Maldonado, alias “El Sexto”, who is awaiting trial on a charge of “disrespect” for painting “Fidel” and “Raúl” on a pair of pigs in a satire of former president Fidel Castro and his brother, the current president, Raúl Castro, the commission said. It is unclear whether any of them will be among the 3,522 to be pardoned this week.
Neither the commission nor the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), the country’s largest dissident group, knew of any releases as of Friday morning, its leaders said. Those who will not be pardoned, with a few humanitarian exceptions, include people convicted of murder, rape, child abuse, cattle rustling or illegal slaughter, and drug trafficking.
The Roman Catholic church in Cuba would not comment on the pardons until bishops had met to discuss them, a church spokesman said. The Cuban government said there will be no releases of those convicted of crimes against state security, but this would not rule out activists detained for peaceful protest, such as the artist Danilo Maldonado, alias “El Sexto”, who is awaiting trial on a charge of “disrespect” for painting a pair of pigs called “Fidel” and “Raúl” after the Castro brothers who have held the presidency since the 1959 revolution.
Related: Pope Francis will meet Fidel Castro in Cuba – if ex-president's health allows The pope is expected to meet both leaders – presuming the ailing Fidel’s health allows – during his visit from 19-22 September. The highlight of the trip is expected to be a mass in revolution square. Cuba will pardon and release 3,522 prisoners ahead of next week’s visit by Pope Francis, the third time the country has granted inmates freedom before a papal visit.
Francis’s visit this month is part of steadily improving relations between Cuba and the Catholic church after decades of strained ties in the years after the 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro.
Cuba released about 300 prisoners including 101 political prisoners ahead of Pope John Paul’s landmark visit in 1998, said Elizardo Sánchez, president of the human rights commission. Cuba freed 2,900 common prisoners ahead of the 2012 visit by Pope Benedict.
More recently, Cuba released 53 political prisoners in conjunction with the 17 December announcement of detente with United States. Cuba at that time also freed US aid contractor Alan Gross, who had been held for five years, and a Cuban man who had been caught spying for the Americans, the latter in exchange for three Cuban spies held in the United States.
Among those to be released now are prisoners older than 60, those younger than 20 with no previous criminal history, the chronically ill, women, some who were due for conditional release in 2016, and foreigners whose repatriation could be assured, Cuba said.
Those who will not be pardoned, with a few humanitarian exceptions, include people convicted of murder, rape, child abuse, cattle rustling or illegal slaughter, drug trafficking, and offences against state security.