Cuba: 2,900 Prisoners Freed in Honor of Benedict XVI’s Visit
Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega has confirmed that Raul Castro’s government did indeed release close to 2,900 prisoners in an amnesty decreed in view of Benedict XVI’s next visit to the island.
“Almost all of them were able to spend the Christmas holidays at home,” announced the Archbishop of La Havane during the New Year celebrations, quoted by the newspaper El Nuevo Herald edited in Miami. Before Christmas, President Raul Castro had announced freedom for prisoners, especially elderly persons, women and a few political prisoners.
Cardinal Ortega also prayed, with 4,000 faithful, for the continuation of the reform process begun by Raul Castro. The political leaders must take “the steps necessary for a transformation of economic and social life,” he declared. Pope Benedict XVI is expected in Cuba in the second half of March 2012.
(sources: apic/kna – DICI#249, Feb 3, 2012)
