HAVANA, CUBA, 15 Jan: Cuba said Tuesday it would release 553 prisoners in response to Washington removing the communist country from its list of terror sponsors in a deal hailed by relatives of jailed protesters.
The White House said President Joe Biden was removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in one of his last official acts before Donald Trump is sworn in next Monday.
The move will likely be overturned by Trump, who reinstated Cuba’s terror designation in the final days of his first term of office in 2021.
“An assessment has been completed, and we do not have information that supports Cuba’s designation as being a state sponsor of terrorism,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
The deal was negotiated with the help of the Catholic Church for the release of “political prisoners in Cuba and those who have been detained unjustly,” the official added.
Family members of jailed protesters hailed the announcement, including Liset Fonseca, mother of 41-year-old Roberto Perez, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
He had taken part in anti-government protests with thousands of other Cubans in July 2021, fuelled by power blackouts and soaring food prices.
“All the mothers of prisoners want our children to be free and out of that suffering, out of that hell that is the prisons in Cuba. They should never have been in prison,” Fonseca told AFP.
One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.
According to official Cuban figures, some 500 people were given sentences of up to 25 years in prison for participating, but rights groups and the US embassy say the figure is closer to 1,000.
Some have already been freed after serving their sentences. -TVS
