Cuba announces release of 51 prisoners through Vatican mediation
In a statement, the Havana regime asserts that this is a ‘sovereign decision’ and that the prisoners will be freed ‘in the coming days’
The Cuban regime on Thursday announced the release of 51 prisoners “in the coming days” thanks to Vatican mediation. In a statement, the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel said that all those slated for release “have served a significant portion of their sentences and have maintained good conduct in prison.”
The statement emphasizes the “spirit of goodwill, of close and fluid relations” between Cuba and the Pontifical State, with which “communication has historically been maintained on the processes of review and release of persons deprived of liberty.”
This “sovereign decision,” the note continues, “is part of the usual practice in our criminal justice system and has characterized the humanitarian trajectory of the Revolution, which this time coincides with the proximity of the religious celebrations of Holy Week.”
The Cuban government claims to have pardoned 9,905 prisoners since 2010 and released another 10,000 people. There are currently 1,214 political prisoners in Cuba, according to the NGO Prisoners Defenders.
In January 2025, Havana announced the gradual release of 553 individuals subject to sanctions following an agreement between Havana and the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden—with the Vatican also acting as a mediator—aimed at removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
However, Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House brought the thaw in relations between the two countries to an abrupt end and saw Cuba placed back on the blacklist on the very day the Republican took office. Cuba fulfilled its commitment to release prisoners, a process that was completed in March 2023. According to human rights NGOs, half of those released were political prisoners.
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