By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer

Cuba will soon release ``dozens or even scores'' of political prisoners in response to a plea by Pope John Paul II last month, Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said Wednesday.

Sanchez said that if the indications he is getting from relatives of prisoners are correct, the move would be President Fidel Castro's single largest release of jailed dissidents in more than a decade.

``I would venture to say that dozens or even scores of prisoners -- that is 20, 40, 60, maybe even 100 -- will be released in a gesture to the pontiff,'' Sanchez said in a telephone interview from Havana.

The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, confirmed Wednesday that the list of ``prisoners of conscience'' whose freedom John Paul pleaded for during his five-day visit to Cuba ran to 300 names.

``The Pope will be happy, and the Cuban people will be especially happy,'' if Castro indeed decides to free a large number of political prisoners, Sodano said in Italy.

Cuba's Foreign Ministry said it had no immediate reaction to Sanchez's remarks but the subject might be dealt with at its weekly press briefing today.

Sanchez said he had been told by relatives of many prisoners that Cuban authorities had been visiting prisons to inform dissidents of the details and conditions of their upcoming release.

Among the most likely to be released is Dr. Omar del Pozo, jailed in 1991 and serving a 15-year sentence on treason charges. ``I am certain he's on the list,'' Sanchez said.

Unlikely to be included in the upcoming release, Sanchez added, are Cuba's leading political prisoners: Marta Beatriz Roque, Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano, all directors of the Domestic Dissidence Working Group.

Arrested after they issued a stinging criticism of Cuban communism last year, the four are still awaiting trial. Havana usually releases only prisoners who have served at least part of their sentences, Sanchez said.

Some 15 to 20 leading dissidents are awaiting trial and are unlikely to be covered by any government clemency, European diplomats in Havana said in telephone interviews.

Numbers uncertain

No one outside the government knows how many prisoners will be freed, Sanchez said. But if the Rev. Jesse Jackson won the release of 26 jailed dissidents during his 1984 visit to Cuba, he noted, ``John Paul has to rate a higher number.''

Sanchez added that the papal request for clemency has only ``accelerated or given more relevance'' to a process of releasing jailed dissidents ``in a silent way'' that has been going on for about two years.

The number of political prisoners in jail dropped from 1,000 in early 1997 to about 500 as of Jan. 1, he said, as the government switched tactics from jailing its critics to harassing and threatening them.

Traditionally, the Cuban government has pushed some top dissidents to leave the country immediately after they are free. Ninety percent of all former prisoners eventually seek asylum abroad because of government harassment, denial of jobs and threats against family, Sanchez said.

``They have no alternative. The fundamentalist nature of this government makes the reinsertion of these people into society impossible.''

Hunger strikers

Sanchez and other sources in the Cuban capital ruled out any link between the Pope's plea for clemency and the reported release 10 days ago of seven human rights activists who had staged lengthy hunger strikes in the central city of Santa Clara.

Six of the activists, members of the Pro-Human Rights Party, began fasting Oct. 9, after they were arrested for demanding an end to the trial of the seventh party member who eventually also joined the hunger strike.

Authorities first approached the seven in December with an offer of freedom if they agreed to leave Cuba, the sources said. The seven initially rejected the deal but agreed while the pope was in Cuba.

They were identified as Daula Carpio, 27; Ivan Lemos Romero, 31; Danilo Santos Mendez, 48; Jose Yeras Martinez, 47; Jose Alvarado Almeida, 33; Lilian Meneses Martinez, 45; and Ileana Peñalver Duque, 26.
Asylum in U.S.

U.S. officials said they could not independently confirm the release of the seven, but added that relatives had told the U.S. Interests Section in Havana that the seven planned to apply for asylum in the United States.

``We have heard that the Cuban government has made an offer. . . . We will move quickly to evaluate any request for political asylum as soon as we receive it,'' said one U.S. official in Havana.