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“A new stage is opening up in Cuba with the wish to definitively settle the question of the prisoners,” affirmed Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos at the end of a meeting with President Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega. During the meeting it was announced that the Cuban authorities will release 52 political prisoners in the next months.

The Cuban government will release in the next few weeks all the political prisoners that remain of the 75 opposition members arrested in 2003, a press release by the Archbishopric of Havana reported today. The decision was notified to Cardinal Jaime Ortega during a meeting with the foreign ministers of Cuba and Spain, Bruno Rodríguez and Miguel Angel Moratinos, respectively. The released dissidents will be able to leave the country in a process that will be completed in the next three or four months.

The government of Venezuela will deport to Cuba Salvadoran Francisco Chávez Abarca, accused in the island of preparing the attacks against hotel installations in 1997 which caused the death of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Miguel Angel Moratinos said he was confident that his visit to Cuba will contribute to the definitive lifting of the Common Position of the European Union (EU) toward the island, a policy in force since 1996, in statements during his talks with his counterpart Bruno Rodríguez, reported the press accredited in the Caribbean country.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will meet today with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, during the first day of his official visit to the island, the third since he took over his post. Moratinos has been one of the strongest supporters of a change of policy toward Cuba within the European Union (EU). It is expected that his visit will bring changes in the situation of the political prisoners in the Caribbean country.

A 4.7 Richter scale earthquake was reported on Monday afternoon in Cuba’s eastern most province of Guantanamo, reported IPS citing the US Geological Survey. The tremor is the latest in a series of telluric movements felt in this part of the island since the devastating January 12 earthquake in neighboring Haiti.

The 21st U.S.-Cuba Friendship Caravan, organized by the inter-religious foundation Pastors for Peace, began this weekend its annual tour of cities in Canada and the United States. On this occasion the donations collected by the initiative will back the recovery in the areas in Cuba affected by the 2008 hurricanes and the development of children.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is scheduled to arrive in Havana on Monday. According to the Spanish press, his mission includes working out details to free dozens of Cuban political prisoners. The ABC daily says that some 70 prisoners could be released through the mediation of the Catholic Church, the Spanish government and with the acceptance of France and Italy to receive the dissidents.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, the top advisor to his brother Raul’s government, reiterated his recent warning Sunday that the United States and Israel are planning an attack soon against Iran.