Cuba began releasing some prisoners on Wednesday as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after President Joe Biden's administration announced its intention to lift the US designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
More than a dozen people convicted of various crimes — some of whom were arrested after participating in the historic 2021 protests — were released during the day, according to Cuban civic groups tracking cases of detainees on the island.
Among those released is tattoo artist Reina Yacanara Barreto Batista, 24, who was arrested in the 2021 protests and sentenced to four years in prison for assault and public disorder.
She was released from a prison in Camagüey province, and told the Associated Press that eight men were also released with her.
The US government said on Tuesday that it had notified Congress of its intention to lift Cuba's designation as part of an agreement facilitated by the Vatican.
Officials said Cuban authorities would release some of them before Biden's term ends on January 20.
Hours later, Cuba's Foreign Ministry said the government had informed Pope Francis that it would gradually release 553 convicts while authorities explore legal and humanitarian ways to achieve this.
Havana did not link the release of prisoners to the US decision to lift the classification, but said it was “in line with the spirit of the ordinary jubilee of 2025 declared by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican tradition that takes place once every 25 years. Jubilee, during which the Catholic faithful make a pilgrimage to Rome.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez did not mention their release on Wednesday — consistent with his position the day before, indicating they were two separate cases — but he did mention Cuba's removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“You can reverse a country's position on that list, but the enormous damage to American foreign policy cannot be undone,” he told the AP. He added: “It has been proven that this list is not a tool or tool in the war against terrorism, but rather a brutal instrument and merely an instrument of political coercion against sovereign states.”
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, one of the civilian groups, said that by 4 p.m. EST, 18 people had been released, including Barreto Batista.
“At 3 a.m. they knocked on the door,” Barreto Batista told the AP by phone. “I was sleeping (in the cell) and they asked me to gather all my things. I was free.”
She said she and the eight men were warned that this was not a pardon or pardon, and that they must be of good behavior or they could be sent back to prison.
“I'm 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 protesters, 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 NGO, Justice 11J, said that 554 people remained in detention in connection with the protests.
Biden's intention to lift the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism will likely be reversed as early as next week after President-elect Donald Trump takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio takes over as top US diplomat.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been an advocate of imposing sanctions on the communist island.
