Canada: No promises from Cuba

Published Friday, May 1, 1998, in the Miami Herald

Canada: No promises from Cuba

HAVANA -- (AFP) -- Cuba has made no commitment to Canada to free four political prisoners at the request of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a Cuban foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Chretien, who paid the first visit to Communist-ruled Cuba by a Canadian prime minister in 22 years this week, admitted at the end of a two-day trip that he had received no promises or guarantees from President Fidel Castro in their more than seven hours of meetings.

However Castro said on Chretien's departure here that the request for the prisoners' release ``should be analyzed.''

Martha Beatriz Roque, Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano were arrested in July for trying to re-activate a human rights organization and have been held in custody since. No trial date has been set.