Cubans tell Rivero to consider leaving

Cuba's best-known dissident writer, Raúl Rivero, who won international prizes for both his poetry and his activism, was released from prison Tuesday along with another government critic, bringing the total of dissidents freed this week to five.

But Cuban authorities gave Rivero a year to consider leaving the island, his stepson told The Herald. The alternative, apparently, is a return to prison if he continues speaking out against the communist government.

''They told him he didn't have to leave the country now, that he had a year to think about it,'' said stepson Miguel Sánchez, who lives in Miami and spoke with Rivero by phone. ``His release does not convey the liberation or democratization of Cuba, but it is a relief for his family.''

Sánchez said the once heavy-set, now much thinner 59-year-old Rivero, whose health deteriorated significantly in prison, was in good spirits Tuesday and even told a couple of jokes despite his 20-month incarceration, including 11 months in solitary confinement.

At his home in Havana, the white-haired writer told foreign reporters that he had no immediate plans. The Cuban media have not mentioned any of the dissidents' releases.

''I've never wanted to leave Cuba,'' Rivero said. ``I think I'm going to step back and observe, and see if I can do regular journalism, like I was doing. If I can do my work, I have no reason to leave.''

OPPOSITION PARTY

Also freed Tuesday was Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes, a member of an illegal opposition political party. Three other dissidents were released Monday -- economics writer Oscar Espinosa Chepe, physician Dr. Marcelo López and activist Margarito Broche.

Rivero was among 75 dissidents jailed last year on treason charges for allegedly working with U.S. diplomats in Havana to undermine the Cuban government. Most were sentenced to long prison terms -- Rivero's sentence was 20 years -- after mostly one-day trials.

Rivero has long been one of the most respected dissidents on the island because he is one of the few with professional journalism experience and the author of a long list of poetry books.

His journalism career began at the state-run Prensa Latina news agency, where he rose to Moscow correspondent. He broke with the government in the late 1980s and later founded CubaPress, an independent news agency. Three years ago, he helped establish the first association of independent journalists in Cuba.

Rivero, who also is the regional vice chairman for the Press Freedom Committee of the Miami-based Inter-American Press Association, filed regular reports from the island, bringing worldwide attention on human rights abuses in Cuba.

''We are extremely happy about his release and will continue in our daily struggle for the release of the other imprisoned journalists and the ultimate return of a free press in Cuba,'' press association President Alejandro Miró Quesada said in a phone interview from Lima.

Rivero has won numerous awards and earlier this year received the prestigious World Press Freedom prize from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.

Even behind bars, Rivero wrote about love, justice and the struggle for a free Cuba. He said Tuesday that he hopes to publish a book of poetry and memoirs about his confinement.

WIFE'S SUPPORT

While in jail, Rivero often told his wife Blanca Reyes that he was prepared to remain incarcerated ''as long as it takes.'' She kept his struggle in the international spotlight.

''It still feels like it's all a dream,'' a beaming Reyes said in Havana. ``The only time I have been this happy is when my son was born.''

In Miami, Rivero's release sparked joy among Cuban exiles as well as cautions that Cuba's communist system can still arbitrarily jail, as well as free, any of its citizens.

''On a personal level, we're happy for these political prisoners and their families, but . . . this does not signal a change in the situation that landed these activists in prison,'' said Omar López, head of the human rights section of the Cuban American National Foundation.

Said one State Department official in Washington: ``For every one of the dissidents released, we have reports they are arresting others . . . They give with one hand but take from the other.''

The release of Rivero and the others raised expectations in Cuba that even more jailed activists will be freed soon. They were among a group of more than a dozen prisoners transferred from provincial prisons to a prison hospital in Havana over the weekend, and more transfers are expected soon.

So far, Cuba has released a dozen of the 75 activists jailed last year. All were suffering from poor health and allowed to return home under a parole-like status.

The releases followed an announcement last week that Cuba had resumed diplomatic contacts with Spain, whose previous conservative government had joined the European Union in condemning last year's crackdown on dissent.

Cuba broke off contacts with EU diplomats in Havana after they began inviting dissidents to their embassy functions.

Spain's new Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has advocated resuming a dialogue with Cuba, and is expected to push the issue when EU leaders meet in Brussels next month.