Two political prisoners who had refused to leave prison were freed against their wishes on Saturday as Cuba released more jailed government opponents. Hector Maseda and Angel Moya were among the last of 52 prisoners President Raul Castro agreed to release in a deal brokered in July by the Roman Catholic Church.
Maseda, whose wife, Laura Pollan, heads the "Ladies in White," Cuba's leading dissident group, was told on Friday he could go free after almost eight years behind bars. But he said he would not leave until the government dropped its insistence on keeping him on parole. He said he was taken from prison on Saturday against his will and was still on parole, which imposes conditions on his freedom.
"Today, tomorrow and all the time, I will say I am being freed against my will and I am being forced by (the government). I do not agree with (parole)," he told Reuters from his home in Central Havana. Maseda, 68, was head of an outlawed political party. Moya, whose wife, Berta Soler, is also a leader of the Ladies in White, had refused to leave jail until the rest of the 52 were freed, but he said he was also forced out on Saturday.
When he arrived at his home near Havana, about 100 jeering government supporters greeted him, shouting, "Viva Fidel, Viva la revolucion." "These people that shout at us today will applaud us tomorrow," he said.