After U.S. lifts terror designation, Cuba starts freeing prisoners
cuba Some prisoner releases began Wednesday as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced its intention to lift sanctions on the Vatican. United States designation island nation as a countries that support terrorism.
According to Cuban civil society groups following the cases of detainees on the island, more than a dozen people were convicted of different crimes that day, some of whom were arrested after taking part in the historic 2021 protests.
Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, a 24-year-old tattoo artist who was detained during protests in 2021 and sentenced to four years in prison for assault and public disorder, has been freed. She was released from a prison in Camagüey province and told The Associated Press that eight men were also released with her.
On Tuesday, the U.S. government said it had notified Congress of its intention to revoke Cuba’s designation as part of a deal brokered by the Vatican. Cuban authorities will release some of them before the Biden administration ends on January 20, officials said.
Hours later, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said the government informed Pope Francis that 553 prisoners would be gradually released and that authorities were exploring legal and humanitarian avenues to achieve this goal.
Havana did not link the prisoners’ release to the U.S. decision to revoke the designation, but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee 2025 proclaimed by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican’s traditional jubilee every 25 years. , Catholics make a pilgrimage to Rome.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno RodrÃguez made no mention of the release on Wednesday – in line with his stance the day before, suggesting they were separate issues – but mentioned removing Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
“You can reverse a country’s position on that list, but the enormous damage to U.S. foreign policy is irreversible,” he told The Associated Press. “The list has proven to be not a tool or a tool in the fight against terrorism, but It is just a tool of cruelty and political coercion against sovereign countries.”
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, one of the civil society groups, said that as of 4 p.m. ET, 18 people had been released, including Barreto Batista.
“At three o’clock in the morning, they knocked on the door,” Barreto Battista told The Associated Press by phone. “I was sleeping (in the cell) and they told me to pack all my stuff and I was free.”
She said she and the eight men were warned this was not a pardon or forgiveness and that they had to behave or risk being sent back to prison.
“I’m at home with my mom,” she said. “The whole family is celebrating.”
In July 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest against widespread power outages and shortages amid a severe economic crisis. The government’s crackdown on demonstrators, including arrests and detentions, has sparked international criticism, while Cuban officials have blamed U.S. sanctions and media propaganda for the unrest.
In November, Justice 11J, another Cuban NGO, said that 554 people were still detained in connection with the protests.
Biden’s intention to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism could be overturned as soon as next week when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated and Secretary-designate Marco Rubio takes over as the nation’s top diplomat.
Rubio’s family, who left Cuba before the communist revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in the 1950s, has long supported sanctions on the communist island.
