Letting Go

Castro offers to unlock the jails

We just want the U.S. to do its moral duty," declared Cuban President Fidel Castro, whose own sense of moral vision sometimes veers in strange directions. But last week in Havana, as he met with 75 mostly U.S.-based Cuban exile leaders, the dictator seemed to have something humanitarian in mind. He promised to release about 3,000 Cuban political prisoners currently languishing in his jails if the U.S. would agree to accept most of them as refugees. In addition, he pledged an easing of travel restrictions to bring together Cuban families separated by years of exile, a plan that Castro said could affect as many as 50,000 people.

Having already sent 46 ex-prisoners to the U.S. in October, Castro was clearly signaling his desire for improved relations with the U.S. But he was also responding to steady criticism over his policy of domestic political oppression. The most recent blast came last month from London-based Amnesty International, which estimated that more than 3,000 dissidents are being held in Cuban jails and charged that "a substantial number of Cuban prisoners are now among the longest-serving political prisoners in the world today." As far as Fidel is concerned, his new offer would settle those issues. He claims that the amnesty would cover 80% of the political detainees in the country; the remainder would stay jailed for "serious" crimes, notably terrorism.

Castro also took the opportunity to scoff at Washington's concern over the disclosure that the Soviet Union had delivered 20 high-powered MiG-23 Flogger jets to Havana. One version of the Flogger can carry nuclear weapons, and its presence in the Caribbean would be a serious violation of the 1962 Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement that ended the Cuban missile crisis. The MiG-23s are "purely of a defensive nature," insisted Castro. He added that Cuba had received the warplanes a year ago.

In Washington, officials seemed ready to accept Castro's amnesty proposal at face value. "Better behavior on human rights is bound to improve the climate," said a State Department Cuban specialist. In the past, Attorney General Griffin Bell, worried about possible infiltrators among amnestied refugees, has insisted on rigid and lengthy screening procedures. Castro mocked that cautious approach last week, arguing that "no U.S. Administration can deny these people." This time, Washington has said it will try to speed up the process.

As for Castro's claims about those "defensive" MiG-23s, the U.S. still plans on a series of high-altitude reconnaissance missions over Cuba before taking the dictator's word that the MiGs are not the ones with offensive nuclear capability.

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