Cuba: For More Than 2,500, a Reprieve Before Pope’s Visit

More than 2,500 Cuban prisoners have been released in recent days under a New Year’s amnesty announced before a visit this spring by Pope Benedict XVI, a local human rights group said Tuesday in Havana. 

President Raúl Castro said Friday that the ruling Council of State had granted amnesty to more than 2,900 common prisoners, although not all were immediately released. Mr. Castro said that the amnesty was a “humanitarian gesture” and that the council had also “taken into account” the coming papal visit and requests by, among others, top Roman Catholic Church officials in Cuba and relatives of the prisoners.

Elizardo Sánchez, director of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights, said his group applauded the releases, “but really it is a limited gesture as we calculate there are between 70,000 and 80,000 Cubans in prison.”