Cuba says it released over 2,000 prisoners as Trump administration heaps pressure on island
The Cuban government said Thursday evening that it had pardoned and released 2,010 prisoners, a sweeping move that comes as the island nation grapples with intense pressure from the Trump administration, including an oil blockade which – until recently – halted fuel shipments.
Calling it a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture,” the Cuban Embassy in the United States announced the release of prisoners on Day X. It said that among those released were young people, women, people over 60, Cuban citizens living abroad and foreign nationals. Prisoners guilty of various violent crimes were not eligible, according to the embassy.
It is unclear whether any political prisoners have been released. The nonprofit Prisoners Defenders counted 1,211 political prisoners in Cuba.
The Cuban government said the mass pardons are the second release of prisoners this year. Last month, a small group of 51 inmates were released.
Prisoner releases come as Cuba enjoys at least partial reprieve energy crisis which paralyzed the island. Earlier this year, the Trump administration threat to impose heavy tariffs on all countries that export oil to Cuba, causing fuel shortages while shipments were interrupted for several months.
But earlier this week, the United States authorized a Russian-flagged tanker authorized to dock in Havana with more than 700,000 barrels of oil. Russia has announced plans to send a second tanker, providing a lifeline to Cuba.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week that the Trump administration decided to let the first tanker through “for humanitarian reasons.”
President Trump said last weekend: “We don’t mind if someone takes a boatload because they need to…they need to survive. »
But Leavitt said U.S. policy toward Cuba had not changed and future decisions on whether to allow tankers access to the island would be made “on a case-by-case basis.”
Mr. Trump has put pressure on the Cuban government in recent months, as administration officials suggest they want to see major changes in the country’s governance. The US president last month launched the idea of “taking Cuba in one form or another”.
“Whether I release it or take it, I think I can do whatever I want with it,” he told reporters.
The Trump administration has adopted a more aggressive foreign policy posture in recent months. The American army launched a daring operation in January to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an ally of Cuba and, for nearly five weeks, the United States was swallowed up in an air war against Iran.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump declared that “Cuba would be next,” calling it a “failed country.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Cuba – whose communist system has endured, with some changes, since the arrival of Fidel Castro in 1959 – needed new leadership.
“I think Cuba needs two things: economic reform and political reform. You can’t fix its economy if you don’t change its system of government,” Rubio told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, calling its leaders “incompetent.”
“They have a lot of problems,” Rubio said. “There’s no doubt about it. And you know, we’ll have more news on that very soon. We’re working on that as well.”
The Trump administration engaged in negotiations with Cuba, both sides acknowledged this, and former Cuban President Raúl Castro played a role.
But Cuba has pushed back against some of Mr. Trump’s suggestions that he would like to take control of the country. President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez warned last month that “any external aggressor will encounter impregnable resistance”.
