The United States yesterday welcomed Cuba's decision to release about 300 prisoners, some of them political detainees, but said it was too early to judge whether it merited a US gesture of response.
The releases, announced in the government paper, Granma, are in response to an appeal by Pope John Paul II during his visit to the island last month.
Cuba yesterday released 19 of the 300, including a well-known dissident, Mr Hector Palacios. But the ruling Communist Party newspaper said some 70 "counterrevolutionaries" would not be pardoned although their names were on a list presented to Cuban officials by Vatican authorities during the Pope's visit.
The Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) said the release deserved no reciprocal gesture from Washington because those detained should never have been arrested. "How can this debate be so morally sterile that some would already talk about rewarding Castro for releasing from the Cuban gulag men and women who should never have been jailed in the first place?" CANF said. However, in Washington a State Department spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said: "We naturally welcome the news that political prisoners are to be released. If these releases lead to an increase in the sphere of freedom inside Cuba, they are an important development.
"But until we have further information on the scope and conditions of these releases, we cannot fully assess their significance." Mr Rubin said Washington was concerned that many political prisoners were not being released and that those who were freed might be forced into exile. It also wanted to ensure that people released were not detained again.
The Vatican welcomed the move as a "notable step".
Ms Odilia Valdes Collazo, president of the Partido Pro Derechos Humanos de Cuba (Cuban Party for Human Rights), said that 18 of the people freed had been from Havana's Combinado del Este jail, while another person was released from Manzanillo in eastern Cuba. She did not know how many of those released were political prisoners.
Mr Palacios celebrated his freedom with fighting talk, telling reporters at his Havana home that he would carry on his campaign for reform. "As political people, we have the duty and the right to criticise," he said.
He also called on President Fidel Castro's government to move forward from the pardons announced this week and free all political prisoners.
He was jailed in January of last year after giving an interview to German television in which he described the Cuban leader as "crazy".