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Pressure has increased on Pope Benedict XVI to speak out in favor of human rights on his 26-28 March visit to the Communist Island of Cuba. Prominent dissident Guillermo Farinas has written to the Pope warning he would be an "accomplice" to the Communist Government if he failed to use his homilies to highlight the �beatings with impunity� inflicted on members of the opposition. 

Additionally, Mr. Farinas called for the Pope to ask for the �release without exile of all political prisoners� and improvements in the �terrible prison conditions," reported the Spanish news agency EFE. Mr. Farinas, who won the European Parliament�s Sakharov Prize for defending human rights in 2010, asked the Pope to meet �former political prisoners, civic opposition members, journalists and independent bloggers�. 

The Women in White, a group representing mothers and partners of imprisoned dissidents, has requested �a moment� of the Pope�s time, but have been told it would be �very difficult� to arrange, according to EFE.