Cuba announced on Tuesday that 553 prisoners would be released, after the United States removed the communist island from the blacklist of states supporting terrorism.
Outgoing President Joe Biden's surprise decision to remove Cuba from the US blacklist, made official in a memorandum released Tuesday by the White House, should encourage the release of a “significant number of political prisoners”, a senior US official said .
In the process, Havana announced the upcoming release of 553 prisoners.
“As is customary in our judicial system, we have taken the unilateral and sovereign decision to release 553 people convicted of various crimes,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel declared on X.
Shortly before, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs had indicated in a press release that at the beginning of January “President Diaz-Canel (had) sent a letter to the Sovereign Pontiff” to this effect and that the prisoners concerned would be released “gradually”.
Cuban authorities have not specified whether among those soon to be released include Cubans convicted for participating in the anti-government protests of July 2021, the largest since the advent of the Castro revolution in 1959.
The senior American official, however, indicated in an online press conference that among those released were “human rights defenders”, including imprisoned demonstrators. He said the release would “come within a relatively short period of time” and said the deal was negotiated with the help of the Catholic Church.
Joe Biden's decision comes even before the swearing-in on Monday of Donald Trump, whose party supports a very hard line against the Cuban communist authorities.
A few days before ceding power to Joe Biden in January 2021, the former and now future Republican president made the exact opposite decision, that of placing Cuba on this list which also includes North Korea, Iran and Syria .
“Very happy”
“I am very happy with this news. All the mothers of prisoners want their children to be free and to come out of this suffering (…) They should never have been imprisoned,” Liset told AFP Fonseca, mother of Roberto Pérez, 41, a protester sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“We have always said that they should be free because they have not committed any crime other than asking for freedom and demanding rights in Cuba,” reacted Laida Yelkis Jacinto, mother of Anibal Jaciel, 29 years old, sentenced to five years in prison.
It is entirely possible that Donald Trump decides to put Cuba back on the blacklist after coming to power.
Joe Biden announced two other unilateral measures on Tuesday. On the one hand, it suspends the possibility of filing complaints in American courts for expropriations in Cuba, and on the other hand lifts certain financial restrictions.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, immediately denounced the “unacceptable” decision to remove Cuba from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.
He accused Joe Biden of seeking to “undermine” the work of the future government of Donald Trump and the Republican-majority Congress.
Asked about tying the hands of the Republican president-elect in this way, six days before he was sworn in, the senior official already cited assured that there was “a widely shared opinion in both parties (editor's note: Democrat and Republican), that no one should be detained without reason in Cuba.”
According to official figures, some 500 people were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for their participation in the protests of July 11 and 12, 2021.
NGOs and the United States Embassy in Cuba count a total of a thousand “political prisoners” on the island.
In 2023, an envoy from Pope Francis asked Havana for the release of imprisoned demonstrators.
The Catholic Church has already advocated for the release of prisoners in the past. In 2010, Raul Castro, then president, negotiated with the Catholic hierarchy the release of some 130 political prisoners.
Havana denies the existence of political prisoners and accuses opponents of being “mercenaries” in the pay of Washington.
