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(Photo: Gerry Hadden)
The Cuban dissidents trickling in to Spain are frustrated at their reception. They’re part of a total of more than 50 prisoners being freed in a government deal. While they’re glad to be free after years behind bars, their future remains uncertain. The World’s Gerry Hadden has been following story. Download MP3
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MARCO WERMAN: More freed Cuban dissidents were supposed to arrive in Spain today, along with their family members. But the Spanish government says the group’s arrival has been delayed until later this week. Cuba has agreed to release a total of 52 political prisoners, following talks with the Catholic Church and Spanish diplomats. A few made it to Spain last week. The World’s Gerry Hadden spoke to some of the released Cubans in Madrid.
GERRY HADDEN: Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso has been a free man for a week. It’s the little details, he says, that keep surprising him.
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HADDEN: For example, he says, on the flight from Cuba I saw a metal knife for the first time in more than seven years. They were prohibited in prison. Then I was given a meal. Hey, I said, this food is hot. Imagine seven years and four months without a single, hot meal. Gonzalez sits outside a hotel on a sweltering afternoon. He’s one of eleven Cuban political dissidents who flew to Spain, along with family members, in the past week. Like many of them, Gonzalez is tired, and a bit bewildered. His wife Ahleeda says they’ve been on an emotional roller coaster.
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HADDEN: She says, I was first reunited with my husband at the airport, surrounded by Cuban security. I didn’t have time to think. But then on the plane, I could see my homeland disappearing through the window, and I felt sad. But at the same time I was so happy that Ricardo was free. It’s been a mix of feelings that I can’t describe. One of the feelings is disappointment. The Spanish government made much noise about winning the prisoners’ release. But when the Cubans landed in Madrid they were bussed here, to this budget hotel on the outskirts of the capital. It’s called the Welcome Hotel. It has communal bathrooms and no air conditioning. And it’s about 100 degrees. The nearest subway stop is 20 minutes away.
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HADDEN: The conditions here are less than sufficient for many of us, Gonzalez says. But many of the Cubans don’t want to complain. They say anything is better than being behind bars. Still, they don’t understand why the foreign minister didn’t receive them, or why they don’t have better housing. Cuban American Armando Valladares calls the situation shameful. He’s here with an NGO helping the Cubans adjust to their new life. This, he says, gesturing at the hotel, was the deal Spain struck with Cuba.
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HADDEN: He says since Cuba doesn’t recognize Cuban political dissidents, Raul Castro insisted that Spain couldn’t either. So Spain has given the ex-prisoners the status of immigrants. As if they were your typical Latino farmhands, he says, come to pick olives. This housing situation is temporary. The exiles say they’re more concerned that Europe, at Spain’s behest, might drop its 14-year-old policy of linking economic assistance to human rights improvements in Cuba. Former Cuban prisoner Alejandro Gonzalez says that would be a mistake.
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HADDEN: The prisoner release is purely cosmetic, he says. If the government were really democratizing it would first have to dismantle its police state, its court system designed to muzzle dissent. Until that happens it’s the same old story. The Spanish government insists that Cuba is now moving in the right direction. But as politics play out, the Cubans here are left to sort through their own conflicting emotions, including their feelings about their colleagues still in Cuban jails. Some of those prisoners say they’ll refuse freedom if it means exile. Journalist Ivan Salou says he was scared to make that stand.
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HADDEN: He says, I accepted exile because I simply don’t trust the Cuban government. If I had said that I want to be free and stay in Cuba, I’m not sure they would have let me go. And if they had freed me I would always have been running the risk that by opening my mouth I’d be right back in jail. And I know what jail in Cuba is like. The Spanish Red Cross has already begun relocating some ex-prisoners to cities around Spain. But there will still be some challenges for them. For one thing, Spain’s unemployment rate is nearly 20 percent. Cuban dissident Alejandro Gonzalez was released in 2008 and he has some advice for the new arrivals.
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HADDEN: He says they should push the Spanish government to immediately recognize their Cuban working credentials and diplomas. Some of them are doctors and Spain needs doctors, he says. They should take advantage of that. But if Gonzalez’s experience is any indication, that’s not likely to happen. It took Spain more than a year just to get him his working permit. He’s still looking for a job. But in the meantime he’s published a book about his experiences. That’s ultimately what these exiles would like to do. To keep fighting for freedom in Cuba, even from abroad. For The World I’m Gerry Hadden, at the Welcome Hotel, south of Madrid.
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