Those guilty of ``violent or terrorist acts, spies, accomplices of the economic blockade decreed by the United States, or who have participated in acts against the economy and life of the nation'' are excluded from the release even though their names were on the list of 270 submitted by the Vatican, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Friday.
It was not possible to determine how many prisoners had been freed Friday, but dissident sources said about 20 -- mainly common criminals -- had been released at the Boniato prison in Santiago de Cuba and the Combinado del Este prison in Havana.
Freed political prisoners included Hector Palacios, president of the Party of Democratic Solidarity, who had served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. Palacios said he was jailed for criticizing the government for not meeting the commitment to democracy President Fidel Castro made at the 1996 Ibero-American Summit in Viña del Mar, Chile.
``As political people, we have the duty and the right to criticize,'' Palacios said from his home in Havana. He said he plans to continue his opposition to the government and will return to prison if necessary.
``I would rather be in prison for my ideas than be outside as a slave,'' he said.
The Spanish news agency EFE said Friday night that dissident sources reported 99 people freed so far, of whom about half were political prisoners and the rest were held for common crimes.
Granma said the prisoners who will not be freed include those who took part in acts like the slaying of a coast guardsman in Tarara in 1992 and the infiltration of armed groups from the United States at Caibarien in 1994.
It also mentioned Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran accused of setting off bombs in tourist hotels last year, one of which killed an Italian businessman.
``The revolution is generous, but at the same time it acts with determination,'' Granma said. ``There cannot be impunity for the enemies of the fatherland, or for those who want to destroy Cuba.''
The newspaper said the list of 270 names submitted to the Cuban government by the Vatican during the visit of the Pope last month had been reduced to 74 prisoners whose release began Friday.
Of the 270, 106 had already been freed, 70 will not be freed and 20
other cases are still being studied, Granma reported.
318 may be freed in all
Granma said about 224 common prisoners who are elderly or very ill will be freed ``for humanitarian reasons,'' although their names were not on the Vatican list. This would make a total of 298 inmates to be freed -- or 318 if all of the other 20 whose cases are being studied are released.
Palacios told the independent news agency Cubapress that 15 prisoners were freed with him at the Combinado del Este, most of them being held for nonpolitical crimes. He named two other political prisoners freed -- Alexis Figueroa Martinez and Jose Antonio Carrasco.
``The pardon is cosmetic because the people want liberty, everyone wants liberty,'' said Carrasco, 54, who began serving a nine-year term in 1992 for distributing enemy propaganda and trying to leave the island illegally.
Carrasco told Cubapress that prison authorities encouraged him to leave Cuba after his release.
``I'm going to do it because my ideas are not going to change and if I stay in Cuba I'll have to go back to jail,'' he said.
Carrasco said the Pope's visit showed Cuban authorities the level of discontent in the population and led them ``to take this measure that among other things served to recognize the existence of opposition in Cuba.''
``I'm happy, but I would feel better if they had freed all my fellow prisoners,'' he added.
Cubapress said it had learned of five political prisoners freed at Boniato prison: Pedro L. Perez Martinez, Jorge del Rio Riveron, Manuel del Rio Rivero, Orlando del Rio Guerrero and Eduardo Gomez Sanchez.
In eastern Granma province, Cubapress said, seven political prisoners were freed: Angel Rodriguez Leya, Jorge Oscar Rodriguez Leyva, Lino Jose Molina Basulto, Leonardo Carreras Arias, Angel Mena Segen and Pascual Escalana Naranjo.
Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights
and National Reconciliation, said his organization has an updated list of
487 political prisoners in Cuba with names, accusations and sentences, and
300 others with incomplete data. U.S. officials concerned
An official at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, who asked not to be mentioned by name, said U.S. officials are concerned that many prisoners will not be released.
``We would [also] like to be sure that the people who are released will not be sent back to prison,'' the official said.
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald