Cuba has agreed to move political prisoners, says dissident

By Esteban Israel

Take from Reuters

Guillermo Farinas, on a hunger strike for 88 days demanding ill prisoners be released, told Reuters in a telephone interview that he received the news from a bishop who visited him in the hospital where he is being fed intravenously.

A Catholic Church source, speaking on condition his name not be used, confirmed what Farinas said. “Everything appears that is what will happen,” he said.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba Dionisio Garcia, who heads the Cuban Bishops’ Conference, held a four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Castro in Havana on Wednesday which they both described as positive.

Farinas said Prelate Juan Dios Hernandez, the auxiliary bishop of Havana, brought him the message from Ortega after the cardinal was informed by the government that measures were being taken as agreed in the meeting.

“These are first the transfer of all the prisoners to their respective provinces of residence, and the transfer also of all sick prisoners to hospitals,” Farinas said.

He said he was told a second meeting would be held next week toward “resolving the situation of the prisoners.”

There was no immediate word from Cuban officials.

To read the entire Reuters article click here.