• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 25 / 2011

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HAVANA – A man serving a 20-year prison sentence for mounting an armed incursion aimed at destabilizing Cuba’s government has been released on parole, the dissident Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission said Friday.

Efrain Rivas Hernandez, 50, was detained with two other armed infiltrators in February 1996 after they came ashore at Varadero, Cuba’s biggest coastal resort, to distribute leaflets and fire shots at a hotel.

All three men involved in the incident, which did not cause any casualties, belonged to radical anti-Castro groups based in South Florida.

The rights commission noted that at least 10 other people serving time in Cuban prisons for similar actions are eligible for parole.

Rivas’ release follows President Raul Castro’s statement last week marking an end of the process of political-prisoner releases that began in June 2010.

It was then that Gen. Castro’s government pledged to release the 52 “Group of 75” dissidents jailed in March 2003 who still remained behind bars.

The concession came amid an unprecedented, Spanish-supported dialogue between the Communist government and Cuba’s Catholic hierarchy.

Since last summer, Cuba has released 115 political detainees.EFE

Source: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=392206&CategoryId=14510