Freed Cuban Prisoners in Spain

“This is a continuation of the fight,” Ricardo González Alfonso, one of the dissidents, told reporters upon landing at Madrid’s airport. He insisted that a change in government in Cuba was “inevitable.”

The seven men, who left Cuba Monday night with their relatives on two commercial flights, were expected to be joined soon by additional members of the group of 52 prisoners that the Cuban government agreed to release last week. Spain’s foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who brokered the deal along with the Catholic Church, told the Spanish parliament Tuesday that four more dissidents would arrive in Spain in the next two days, news services reported.

During a news conference in Madrid, the dissidents insisted that their surprise release should not be considered a propaganda victory for the Cuban leadership and that their work challenging the government would not let up. The dissidents, all of whom suffered health problems in prison, appeared in reasonable condition after seven years behind bars and were clean shaven and wearing freshly ironed shirts.

Léster González Pentón, an opposition journalist who was serving a 20-year prison term, said: “We don’t consider ourselves to have been manipulated. In a dialogue process something always has to give, but we didn’t give.”

He added: “Cuba deserves democracy and in a democracy there is room for all leanings to participate.”

The men, who included journalists, a democracy activist and a surgeon, were among 75 people arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms as part of a Cuban government crackdown on dissent in the spring of 2003. The international reaction to the arrests was fierce, with the EU applying diplomatic sanctions.

Julio Cesar Galvez, an independent journalist who was serving a 15-year sentence, said: “We hope that those who continue in Cuba will be able to enjoy the same liberties as we have at this moment.”