U.S. to take in freed Cuban prisoners says Spain

Will the U.S. accept recently freed Cuban dissidents? This is a possibility mentioned by some officials in Spain, a country that has already allowed the migration of twenty-five liberated prisoners over the past few weeks.

According to the one source, Spain's Foreign Ministry Miguel Angel Moratinos was told by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that her country “would be prepared to accept dissidents so long as the transfer did not break any laws.” If these allegations are true then it could help ease the freeing of several jailed dissidents who have expressed their desire to go to the U.S. rather than countries that have already accepted prisoners such as Chile.

In the meantime, political activists in Cuba continued putting their pressure on the ruling Castro government. Reina Luisa Tamayo, the mother of an activist who died in February after a lengthy hunger strike, showed her solidarity with the Ladies in White dissidents. She marched with them in Havana on Sunday, one week after “government supporters” allegedly interfered with a Ladies in White rally:

The Catholic Church helped ease tensions. After last Sunday's march was broken up, the Rev. Eugenio Aranguren, the top Catholic authority in Holguin province, which includes Banes, met with Tamayo and said the Church would take humanitarian, not political steps, in the matter.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega then met Friday in Havana with members of the Damas de Blanco, or "Ladies In White," a support group for wives and mothers of political prisoners, and discussed Tamayo's march. Less than 48 hours later, it went off without a hitch.

Image- AP (“Members of Cuba's dissident group Ladies in White hold photographs of the late political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo during their weekly demonstration in Havana, Cuba, Sunday Aug. 22, 2010.”)
Online Sources- AP, Reuters, MSNBC