WHEN AN Air Europa aircraft touched down at Madrid’s Barajas airport yesterday after a flight from Havana it carried not only Spanish tourists returning from their holidays, but also six Cuban dissidents and their families.
An hour later an Iberia flight arrived carrying a seventh dissident, Ricardo Gonzalez and his family.
The families were greeted at the airport by senior diplomats from the Spanish foreign ministry and Red Cross officials who will provide support for the group.
Another group is expected to arrive as soon as sufficient seats can be found on flights which are heavily booked during the busy tourist season.
The group that arrived yesterday are the first of 52 Cuban detainees whose release was agreed last week during a visit to Havana by Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
He held discussions with the Catholic Church, which has been negotiating on behalf of the “Women in White” group – mainly wives and mothers of the prisoners – who themselves have suffered repression for holding regular protests on behalf of their relatives.
The breakthrough came when Mr Moratinos and Cardinal Jaime Ortega held an unscheduled meeting with Cuban president Raul Castro who agreed to release the 52 political prisoners.
They are all members of a group of 75 dissidents sentenced for up to 28 years in jail for anti-government demonstrations in the Black Spring of 2003.
Spain agreed to accept the detainees and their families indefinitely on the condition that they would be free to return to Cuba and were free travel elsewhere if they chose. So far 20 have expressed a wish to come to Spain. The US and Chile, both of which have large Cuban colonies, have offered to give asylum to others.
The group made only a brief statement on their arrival in Madrid. “We are the first of a group of prisoners of conscience who are treading on Spanish soil after seven years of harsh captivity,” said Julio César Gálvez.
The group said they were driven directly from the prison – where they had spent seven years – to the airport where Spanish consular officials granted them visas. They said they were only reunited with their families minutes before boarding the planes.
Almost at the same time as the dissidents were leaving Havana, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (83) appeared for the second time in two days.
Observers say this was no coincidence as his television interview eclipsed the news of the releases. He as first photographed visiting a science centre during the weekend and again on Monday at a pre-recorded interview which was broadcast on Cuban television.
Wearing a dark blue tracksuit and speaking in a hoarse voice, Castro made no mention of the prisoner release. As on many occasions in the past he blamed the US for many of the world’s problems. He warned that the US would stage a nuclear attack on Iran in the near future, and said they, not North Korea, was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean navy vessel.
El Comandante(the commander) has kept a low profile since emergency surgery four years ago when he handed over the reins of power to his younger brother Raul.