The Castro regime announced this Thursday the release of 2,010 prisoners. This is the largest pardon in decades in Cuba and since the United States increased pressure on the island at the beginning of the year with an energy blockade that is causing the country’s economic collapse. In a statement published in the official newspaper, Granma, the regime defends the decision as a “humanitarian and sovereign” gesture. The Castro regime has not given details about the identity of those released, nor whether they are one of the hundreds of political prisoners denounced by international organizations. Only that among those released are “young people, women, adults over 60 years of age,” as well as “foreigners and Cuban citizens residing abroad, close to completing their sentences.”
The massive pardon comes in and just a week after Donald Trump gave a first sign of easing the oil asphyxiation. Last Sunday, a slight relief for the supply crisis that keeps the island with constant and increasingly prolonged blackouts, in addition to serious problems in basic services such as hospitals or transportation. Despite opening its hand slightly and some ambiguous statements from Trump suggesting more flexibility, the White House made it clear the next day that the gesture does not represent a formal change in the sanctions policy and that they allowed the Russian ship due to the “humanitarian needs of the Cuban people.”
The historic release of prisoners this Thursday also happens a day after the Cuban ambassador in Washington, Lianys Torres Rivera, threw down a gauntlet to the United States to “participate in the economic transformation of Cuba.” Since the military attack on Caracas, which precipitated the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the island has been in Trump’s sights as the next target.
While negotiations are taking place surrounded by secrecy and led by the Secretary of State, the descendant of Cuban migrants Marco Rubio, the president has oscillated between willingness to dialogue and threats. Just two weeks ago, Trump stated that it would be “a great honor” for him to “take Cuba” and that he could “do whatever I want with it.”
The Castro regime’s response has been to make some gestures, but none of the magnitude of the step taken this Thursday. Last month he already announced the release of 51 prisoners, an operation facilitated with the mediation of the Vatican, a historically key actor in extracting concessions from Castroism. The regime has also opened its hand on economic issues, such as allowing Cubans in exile to do business on the island. Or the importation of small quantities of gasoline by private companies. Meanwhile, Castroism also plays with the classic rhetoric of “resistance to imperialism” and accusations against the United States of causing “a genocide.”
The operation announced this Thursday even surpasses the historic releases of a decade ago, when Cuba and the United States signed the resumption of diplomatic relations after five decades of isolation. In September 2015, the Government of Cuba pardoned 3,522 prisoners coinciding with the imminent visit of Pope Francis to the island. In January of that same year, the Cuban government had already pardoned 53 other inmates that Washington considered “political prisoners.”
The UN has condemned the repression in Cuba, which it describes as. The Cuban Government assures that it has pardoned 9,905 prisoners since 2010. According to the calculation of the NGO Prisoners Defender, at this moment there are 1,214. The harsh repression of the massive protests of 2021, with hundreds of young people still imprisoned, has been one of the last chapters. The Cuban Government has not clarified whether among the beneficiaries of this pardon are some of the prisoners from those protests.
