Cuba's pawns

Cuba’s promise to free 52 political prisoners in the coming weeks and months should be greeted, without qualification, as a positive development. Opening the cell doors for prisoners of conscience in Cuba’s wretched jails is, and must remain, a cardinal objective of U.S. policy toward that country and of everyone who wishes freedom for its people. Cuba’s Catholic Church deserves credit for negotiating the release. Church leaders must continue to champion political prisoners and their families, which they’ve been reluctant to do in the past.

There is little reason to believe, however, that this decision signals a significant change in the nature of the Cuban government. For Fidel and Raul Castro, political prisoners are no more than flesh-and-blood political pawns, useful bargaining chips in the game of international relations. This gesture does not appear to be anything more than that.

It cannot be a coincidence that the promised prisoner release comes just as economic pressures are fomenting discontent within Cuba and moves are afoot in both the U.S. Congress and the European Union to ease sanctions that contribute to the pressure.

— Miami Herald