Odds and ends

• Cuban political prisoners who went to Spain with their family members are having a hard time as government aid dries up, and they are beginning to protest.  With family members included, it amounted initially to nearly 800 people, although 32 of the former prisoners have since come to the United States.  Spanish-language media have covered this, and this IPS story from Malaga is the first good summation I have seen in English.  EFE reports today that ten of the former prisoners will go on a hunger strike in front of Spain’s foreign ministry.

• Cuba’s Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement mourning the death of Bishop Agustin Roman of Miami, noting that he served as a priest in the Matanzas diocese until 1961, when he was “forced to leave his country.”

• The New York Times has a roundup of opinions on the question, “Are hard-line Cuban Americans strong as ever?”