Havana, Cuba, Jan 27, 2009 / 09:43 am
In a statement issued last week, the Christian Liberation Movement, which works for the recognition of human rights in Cuba, praised the decision of President Barack Obama to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo, but noted that another prison in the same region of the island where hundreds of prisoners of conscience languish should not be forgotten.
"On previous occasions," the statement said, "we have expressed our position against the existence of [the U.S.] prison on Cuban soil," but "it is essential that we remember that a few kilometers from there, the horrible provincial Prison of Guantanamo is located. It is there that the government of Cuba has incarcerated and still holds Cuban citizens in inhumane conditions who were unjustly condemned for freely speaking, writing or collecting signatures for the Varela Project."