The release of prisoners resumed Thursday in Cuba, after the release the day before of around twenty imprisoned demonstrators, in the wake of the island’s removal from the American blacklist of countries supporting terrorism.
Four detainees, all convicted for their participation in the anti-government protests of July 2021, left a prison located in San Miguel del Padron, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, early in the morning, AFP journalists noted.
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity, once again, in life. It’s a new beginning,” declared, moved, to AFP the young Marlon Brando Diaz, sentenced to 18 years in prison for his participation to the demonstrations, while his family waited for him in front of the penitentiary center.
Also awaited by their families, three other prisoners, held in the same prison, were released, according to AFP journalists.
The Cuban government on Tuesday pledged to release 553 prisoners in a deal brokered with help from the Catholic Church, after outgoing US President Joe Biden announced the communist island’s surprise withdrawal from the blacklist of countries supporting terrorism.
According to the NGO Cubalex, based in Miami, around twenty people, all of whom participated in the demonstrations of July 11 and 12, 2021 on the island, were released on Wednesday.
According to official figures, some 500 people were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for their participation in these protests, the largest since the advent of the Castro revolution in 1959.
Some have been released in recent months after serving their sentences.
NGOs and the United States Embassy in Cuba count a total of a thousand “political prisoners” on the island. Havana, for its part, denies the existence of political prisoners and accuses opponents of being “mercenaries” in the pay of Washington.
