Free Republic

The Cuban government has loosened travel restrictions on some of the island's best-known dissidents, granting them one-time permission to travel abroad ahead of President Barack Obama's trip to the island, activists said Wednesday. [...] Members of a group of 11 dissidents imprisoned during the 2003 crackdown known as the Black Spring said Wednesday that officials have told seven of them that they will be free to travel one time as a reward for good behavior. Four more-politically active members of the group remain unable to travel, the dissidents said. Activist Marta Beatriz Roque said that she and six other former...

Cuban authorities prevented leading dissidents from meeting Pope Francis in Havana on Sunday, in a sign of the Communist regime’s rigid intolerance of political opposition. Two well-known dissidents, Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva, had been invited by the Vatican to attend a vespers service led by the Pope’s in Havana’s historic baroque cathedral.

Had Che Guevara not been executed by Bolivians in 1967, he may well be celebrating his 77th birthday this week. Or he may have endured a bloody death at the hands of other enemies. Had he lived, Western college students almost certainly would not be walking around campus mindlessly displaying his likeness on flaming red T-shirts. A dead martyr is much easier to lionize than a living dictator. Though he died nearly 40 years ago, Guevara is still sparking controversy. Rolling Stone magazine reported last week that guitar legend Carlos Santana was protested at his June 1 Miami concert. The...

A Cuban court has sentenced dozens of prominent dissidents to heavy jail sentences of up to 25 years. Among those convicted is opposition leader Hector Palacios, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The poet/journalist Raul Rivero and the economist Marta Beatriz Roque both received 20-year sentences. They were all found guilty of subversion against the government. The prosecution demanded life sentences for some of the accused. The convicts were among the 78 people arrested during the past few weeks in a major crackdown by police. The international community has strongly condemned the arrests. The relatives of the suspects...