Liberation or Deportation? Phil & Yoani

I highly recommend the latest posts by Phil Peters at "The Cuban Triangle" and Yoani Sanchez at "Generation Y" for more provocative discussion of today's announcement of the coming release of some of Cuba's political prisoners. (The same topic is broached in much more agressive and cynical terms at Babalu, as is thier habit, here).

Both Phil and Yoani address the question raised by Laura Pollán of the Ladies in White:

Did you agree to release them only if they agreed to go into exile?

Phil notes that in this case "liberación" is NOT contingent on "emigración," as it sometimes has been in the past. In fact, other members of the "75" who have previously been released have chosen (and been able) to remain in Cuba, notes Phil. Let's hope Phil's right in this new case. Babalu, on the other hand, refers to the "breaking news" cynically as nothing more than "forced exile."

Yoani, for her part, says simply:

"It is immoral to force emigration on those who might be released in the coming days."

I agree. It is also illegal under international law.

Typical of her sharp and ironic wit, Sanchez also suggests that while sending into exile all those who disagree with the current government would be logistically impossible (there being so many of them), a better solution to Cuba's political prisoner problem might be to simply send "them" (Raúl, Fidel y los demás de allá arriba) out of the country along with Moratinos, the Spanish foreign minister, as he takes his plane back to Spain.