Deal to Release Cuban Prisoners Upended
Among a raft of executive orders issued the day of his inauguration on January 20, 2025, Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) signed one reversing a decision by his predecessor to remove Cuba from a “blacklist” of nations accused of sponsoring terrorism. Though cheered by hardline opponents of the Cuban government in the United States, the move jeopardized a Vatican-brokered deal under which the now-rescinded order of former Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) was exchanged for a promise by Cuba to release 553 people arrested and detained for taking part in unprecedented island-wide protests in July 2021.
The U.S. considers those detainees political prisoners, and Cuba began releasing them only five days before Trump’s order, freeing about 150 prisoners in that time. Havana Bishop Elroy Ricardo Dominguez said that “[t]he release of prisoners in Cuba will continue.” But the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights said there had been an apparent pause in releases over which it was “greatly concerned.”
A key piece of Biden’s directive eliminated a “Cuba Restricted List” that the U.S. maintained. On January 31, 2025, newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he had re-established the list, barring many private transactions that he said could financially benefit the country’s “repressive” government.
Calling that move “unjustifiable,” Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez warned that “[t]oughening criminal measures against the Cuban people will lead to greater shortages, separation and increased emigration.”
Some released prisoners expressed concern about possible re-incarceration. “I’m not interested in politics, but yes, this scares me,” said Karen Vasquez, 44. “We’ve been released on ‘conditional’ liberty … We have no idea what could happen to us.”
“I want to keep my profile low,” agreed Katia Beirut, who also was locked up for taking part in the protests. “I want to enjoy my family after all this time I was without them.”
Source: Reuters News
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