HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba's communist government on Tuesday released the third
                  of four well-known opponents whose sentences last year were severely
                  criticized around the world and spotlighted the island's human rights record.

                  Lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano, who was sentenced last year to four years, was
                  freed Tuesday afternoon, his brother Jorge Manzano confirmed in a telephone
                  interview with The Associated Press.

                  As in the case of two other members of the same group freed earlier this month,
                  it was unclear why the government was freeing Manzano at this particular time.

                  The first of the four, engineer Felix Bonne Carcasses, was released May 12, and
                  like Gomez Manzano had been sentenced to four years. They walked free after
                  serving a little less than three years, including their time behind bars before the
                  sentence was handed down in the spring of 1999.

                  The second, economist Marta Beatriz Roque, got out on May 15.

                  The releases come a month after Cuba was punished by a United Nations
                  censure for human rights abuses.