Cuba dissidents still waiting for promised changes
Published: Tuesday, June 1, 2010 7:00 am By: Paul Haven Source: Associated Press2010-05-31 10:36:00 PDT Havana, , Cuba — (05-31) 10:36 PDT HAVANA, Cuba (AP) --
Dissidents and relatives of Cuban political prisoners said Monday that they've seen no improvement in conditions for inmates despite an apparent government agreement to improve life behind bars for the island's 200 political prisoners.
The Roman Catholic Church said the government agreed to move many of those considered "prisoners of conscience" by international human rights groups to prisons closer to their homes, and some ailing inmates are to be sent to hospitals for long-
But interviews by The Associated Press with six dissidents, relatives and human rights leaders show disappointment at the early results of the reported breakthrough — which was to have gotten under way last week.
"There has been no movement whatsoever," said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Havana-based Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which monitors treatment of dissidents and would be among the first to hear of prison transfers.
Anxious family members said they still held out hope the government would keep its word, but some were clearly beginning to lose patience.
"I spoke to (my husband) on Wednesday," said Lidia Lima, the wife of one of Cuba's oldest political prisoners, 68-year-old Arnaldo Ramos. "He was so hopeful, but now we're not so sure."
What seemed to be a landmark accord on the political prisoners came amid growing signs that Cuba was ready to soften its stance on the opposition, and that the church would play a leading role.
In May, authorities reversed a ban on weekly protest marches by the Ladies in White — mostly relatives of imprisoned dissidents — after Cardinal Jaime Ortega intervened.
Then, on May 19, Cuban President Raul Castro held a four-hour meeting with the cardinal and another church leader. Ortega a said he saw the encounter as a "magnificent start."
Three days later, Havana auxiliary bishop Juan de Dios Hernandez brought news of the prisoner transfer agreement to hunger-striking dissident Guillermo Farinas, who told AP that the transfers would start May 24.
Orlando Marquez, a Havana church official, told AP on May 23 that the transfers would begin over the course of last week.
