Cuba’s government has contacted about a dozen Cubans jailed for crimes against the state-security apparatus and asked if they would be willing to accept freedom in return for leaving their homeland, a leading human rights activist said.
If such a deal became a reality, it would mark the year’s second major release of Cuban political prisoners — once unthinkable in a single-party communist state.
Why Cuban authorities have pushed to reduce the number of political prisoners is unclear, though some have speculated it may be part of an effort to promote reconciliation with the US.
Officials from the administration of US President Barack Obama have long suggested it may be time for a new beginning with Cuba — but have also said they would like to see the nation embrace small economic and social reforms before a true thaw can take place in 50 years of frigid relations.
In addition to freeing political prisoners, Cuba’s government announced last month that it would lay off 500,000 state employees and reduce restrictions on self-employment, small businesses and pockets of free enterprise as a way of modernizing and overhauling its state-dominated economy.
Agents from the Ministry of the Interior — charged with running domestic spying and state security activities — have visited about 12 political prisoners in their cells in recent days and offered them the chance to go free as long as they accept exile, said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Sanchez said late on Saturday that he received the information from relatives of some of the prisoners who had been offered the deal. He added that he hoped to release a statement soon with the exact number of prisoners involved, as well as their names and the countries where they might end up, but that those details were not yet available.
Also unclear were what crimes the prisoners committed, though some Cubans have been jailed for years for disobedience, disrespecting authorities or making derogatory statements about former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
In a landmark deal brokered by officials from the Cuban Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government, Cuban President Raul Castro agreed in July to free 52 opposition activists, community organizers, dissidents and journalists who report on the nation in defiance of state controls on all local news media.
Under the deal, 39 prisoners have been released so far and sent with their families into exile in Spain, with one of them settling in Chile. If the remaining 13 are freed, it would empty Cuban prisons of all 75 top activists arrested in a sweeping crackdown on organized dissent in March 2003, an event human rights activists have labeled the “Black Spring.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese