Guardian: Cuba indicates it will free all its political prisoners
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 16.37 BST
Cuba has signalled that it will free all its political prisoners and let them stay on the island in a bold attempt to repair Havana's ties with the international community.
Senior officials said the recent release of 15 prisoners would be followed by dozens more and the dissidents would be free to stay, should they wish, or they could emigrate.
Exactly how many political prisoners there are is now an urgent question. Amnesty International, using narrow criteria, lists 53 prisoners of conscience. Human Rights Watch, which includes activists jailed on ostensibly criminal charges, estimates more. The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission counted 167. The Castro government does not acknowledge holding any political prisoners, only US-funded "mercenaries" and "terrorists".