(14 Nov 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Tilt down Ladies in White (dissident group) standing on steps of Santa Rita church with released prisoner Arnaldo Ramos
2. Close up Lady in White crying and wiping tears from face
3. Mid Ramos walks towards press
4. Mid Ramos surrounded by press outside church
5. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Arnaldo Ramos, Freed Political Prisoner:
"I'm staying because I want to continue my opposition activities. I have not seen any serious change in the Cuban government's policies. Not until there's a serious opening, a frank one, I don't think that anything is being done to change the situation which is at a stand still. According to what I've seen in reference to those that will be left unemployed, it will move from a standstill to chaos. If there isn't a true opening, at least an economic one, and there should be a political one too, I don't think the government will be able to get out of the situation it is in."
6. Wide shot Ladies in White marching in front of Santa Rita church
STORYLINE
The first of 13 remaining Cuban dissidents jailed since 2003 was released from prison on Saturday and returned to his home in the capital, a strong signal the government intends to release all of the men despite their refusal to go into exile.
On Sunday, 68 year old Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique was the star attraction at a weekly march of the Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, a dissident group comprised of the wives and mothers of 75 activists, social commentators and opposition leaders like Ramos who have been jailed since a 2003 crackdown on peaceful dissent.
The Ladies, which include Ramos' wife, attended a mass with Ramos himself at Havana's Santa Rita church. There he addressed the foreign press assembled outside the church and said that he planned to continue his struggle against the island's communist government.
"I'm staying because I want to continue my opposition activities. I have not seen any serious change in the Cuban government's policies," said Ramos, who predicted a chaotic future for the country if it does not further embrace free market reform.
There was no immediate comment from the Roman Catholic Church, which had announced all of the previous releases. The government has refused to comment as the process has unfolded.
Ramos was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2003 along with 74 other activists on charges of receiving money and support from the United States to destroy the revolution. Some of them were later released for health reasons.
After a meeting with President Raul Castro on July 7, Ortega announced that the 52 still in prison would be let go over the course of four months. Thirty-nine of the men were freed and sent into exile in Spain, but progress stalled as the last 13 refused to leave the island.
A November 7 deadline passed without news on the men's fate, but in recent days the government has given signals it still planned to make good on its word.
The wife of another of the men told the AP on Friday that a state security official visited him in jail to tell him he would be home within the month, and Laura Pollan, a leader of the Ladies in White, said that church officials had told her to be patient.
"They said the agreement has not been broken and the process of liberation will continue, even though the deadline has passed," said Pollan.
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