Cuba has started releasing prisoners, one day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the US designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
More than a dozen people convicted of different crimes — some arrested after taking part in 2021 protests — were released during the day, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees on the island.
On Tuesday, the US government said it notified Congress about the intent to lift the designation of Cuba as part of a deal facilitated by the Vatican.
Hours later, the Cuban foreign ministry said the government informed Pope Francis it would gradually release 553 convicts as authorities explore legal and humanitarian ways to make it happen.
Among those freed was tattooist Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, 24, who was detained in the 2021 protests and convicted to four years in prison for attacks and public disorder.
She was released from a prison in the province of Camaguey and told The Associated Press that eight men were also freed along with her.
Havana did not link the prisoners’ release to the US decision on lifting the designation but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican’s once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee, in which the Catholic faithful make pilgrimages to Rome.
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez did not mention the release on Wednesday — consistent with his stance the day before, indicating they were separate issues — but mentioned removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“You can reverse a country’s status on that list, but the tremendous damage to US foreign policy cannot be undone,” he said.
“It has been proven that this list is not a tool or instrument in the fight against terrorism, but rather a brutal and mere tool of political coercion against sovereign states.”
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, one of the civil groups, said that by 4pm local time, 18 people had been released.
“At three in the morning they knocked,” Ms Batista said.
“I was sleeping (in the cell) and they told me to gather all my things, that I was free.”
“I am at home with my mother,” she said. “The whole family is celebrating.”
In July 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest widespread power outages and shortages amid a severe economic crisis.
The government’s crackdown on the demonstrators, which included arrests and detentions, sparked international criticism, while Cuban officials blamed US sanctions and a media campaign for the unrest.
In November, another Cuban nongovernmental organisation, Justice 11J, said 554 people remained in custody in connection with the protests.
Mr Biden’s intention to lift the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is likely to be reversed as early as next week after President-elect Donald Trump takes office and secretary of state-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat.
Mr Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been a proponent of sanctions on the communist island.
