Economist called for more freedoms, served 15 months

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – As quickly as she was whisked off to prison, one of Cuba's best-known dissidents was freed Thursday after serving just 15 months of her 20-year sentence.

"I'm surprised. I never thought I'd be released," said Marta Beatríz Roque, one of 75 members of the political opposition sentenced to terms of up to 28 years last spring.

Cuban prosecutors had accused Ms. Roque of taking money from the U.S. government to try to discredit and undermine the socialist regime. And they had recommended life in prison. Instead, after a summary trial, she was given a 20-year term.

"We had no chance," she said. "I was only allowed to speak to my lawyer for three minutes just before the trial."

At the time, Cuban officials denied running "kangaroo courts" and said the trials were fair.

Ms. Roque, 59, an economist, is one of four dissident leaders who published a paper in 1998 calling for greater basic freedoms in Cuba. That landed her in prison for three years and six months.

After she was freed, she continued publishing papers and articles about the government and was especially critical of the socialist economy.

She said her only crime was "to think differently." Cuban agents saw her as dangerous, however, and infiltrated her organization.

Since her latest jailing, international human rights groups had been campaigning for her release. Ms. Roque, who lost 22 pounds and gained plenty of gray hair while in prison, is the seventh of the 75 dissidents to be released early in recent months. Like the other six, she has health problems – she says she is a diabetic and has a heart condition.

"This was my second time in prison, she said. "Maybe I will have another time and another. But until the last seconds, the last moments of my life, I'm going to fight for my ideals."