MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba begins releasing prisoners after removal from US terror-sponsoring nations list

Republican politicians from the incoming Trump administration pledged to reinstate Cuba into that infamous list

Cuban authorities began releasing prisoners Wednesday after Tuesday's decision by the outgoing US Government of President Joseph Biden to remove the Caribbean islands from the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations. Havana also said that, as per a deal brokered by the Vatican, it would be freeing up to 553 detainees, including some of those jailed for participating in anti-government rallies. However, leading Republican politicians in Washington hope to restore Cuba to that infamous category after Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

On Wednesday morning, the relatives and friends of around a dozen prisoners announced their release on social media. Most had been imprisoned after the July 11, 2021, anti-government protests over recurring power cuts and soaring food prices. Some 500 people were given sentences of up to 25 years in prison for participating in the demonstrations, but rights groups and the US embassy in Havana say the figure was closer to 1,000. Biden's administration re-opened the US Embassy in Havana to consular services in 2023.

“We received a call yesterday evening to go to the prison today,” Rosabel Loreto told AFP upon her release. She also said her mother-in-law Donaida Perez Paseiro, had been freed from a jail in the central province of Villa Clara. Meanwhile, the Mexico-based Justicia 11J NGO, named after the date of the 2021 protests, announced on X the release of another detainee.

Cuba welcomed Washington's announcement Tuesday as a step in the “right direction,” but lamented it was still under US trade embargo since 1962, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez stressed.

“Cuba should have never been included in [such an] arbitrary list of State sponsors of terrorism,” he wrote on X. “That was an arbitrary and politically motivated designation with a very severe impact on the Cuban population, damaging the economy, causing scarcities, and encouraging migration to the US,” he added. The US trade embargo against Cuba has been in place since 1962.

“The persecution of fuel supplies, medical cooperation programs, financial and commercial transactions, tourism, US citizens’ travels, and anything representing a source of income for our population is still in place,” Rodríguez went on.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, whose father was Cuban, promised to work with Trump's incoming administration to reimpose the state sponsor of terrorism tag. “Obama-Biden officials are continuing their legacy of closing out administrations with rank appeasement of the Cuban regime,” he stressed. 'They push these policies both because they believe in them and to undermine the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress.“ Cruz also warned that any softening of the US stance toward the island risked ”incredible damage“ to American national security.

Meanwhile, Senator Rick Scott said the measure was Biden's ”parting gift to dictators and terrorists around the world.“

”The Government of Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future,” the White House said in a statement.

According to uncorroborated sources, the Biden Administration was in touch with Trump's incoming team while planning this decision regarding Cuba, which had been added to the list in Jan. 2021, during Trump's last days in his first term.