Cuba begins to release political prisoners following Biden’s decision to remove the island from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism
Tuesday promised to be an ordinary day in the life of Bárbara Isaac Rojas, until in the afternoon she connected to the social network Facebook. People were talking about the possible release of 553 Cuban prisoners after talks between the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Vatican. At 10 p.m., she received a call from the director of the Guajamal women’s prison, in the province of Villa Clara, requesting her presence the next day to talk about the case of her daughters Lisdani and Lisdiani Rodríguez, detained for leaving. to the streets of Placetas during the massive protests of July 11, 2021. Hours later, the authorities would notify Rojas that the twins would be released, one of the first benefited after the Joe Biden Administration removed Cuba from the list of State sponsors of terrorism.
“I think it’s a lie,” Rojas tells EL PAÍS from his home in Placetas, in the center of the island. For his daughter Lisdani, who has been on extra-penal leave since May for being pregnant, the Government will extend this license until 2029, the year in which she will serve her sentence. Lisdiani will be granted parole on Thursday. “Tomorrow, God willing, I will have them both together here, like in the old days.”
On Tuesday afternoon, it was learned that the Cuban Government would begin to release hundreds of prisoners, but the authorities had not confirmed whether among them would be any of the more than 1,500 political prisoners who today remain in prisons on the Island. However, The White House did communicate that the decision to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and the suspension of Title III of the Cuban Democratic Freedom and Solidarity Act (Helms-Burton Act) implied the release of “many dozens” of political prisoners.
Since Wednesday morning, some of the names of people who are serving long sentences for peacefully demonstrating with ideas contrary to the Government have begun to be known. In addition to Lisdani and Lisdiani’s sisters, Rowland Castillo and the 21-year-old Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, also detained during the massive protests in July, and who remained in the Campamento El Anoncillo prison, were released. It was her own mother who shared a photo with the young woman upon leaving prison. “Happy, my daughter is free,” he wrote on Facebook. “Thank you my God for giving me this joy, thanks to my family, my children, my friends and all those people who never turned their backs on us.”
It is unknown whether the Government will release other political prisoners, but organizations such as Amnesty International are demanding the immediate release of all people behind bars for ideological reasons or prisoners of conscience. “The Cuban Government must end the repression and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as repeal the laws that criminalize peaceful protest and restrict fundamental freedoms,” they said in a statement.
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) confirmed to this newspaper that as of 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Havana time, at least 17 political prisoners had been released, names that they have been able to register through contact with their own relatives. “Since there is so much uncertainty, the majority of family members feel anguish, because they do not know if their loved ones will benefit,” said Yaxys Cires, the organization’s director of strategies.
For the moment, the Cuban authorities have granted freedom to political prisoners using the legal figures of conditional release and extra-penal license. The first is granted when one third or half of the sentence has been served, or one has had appropriate conduct in prison. The second is applied to people for humanitarian reasons.
The decision by Joe Biden’s Government came six days after he left the White House and raises many doubts about the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump will reverse the measure and once again include Cuba on the list along with countries like Korea. North, Iran and Syria, as he did before ending his term in 2021. Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute and professor of Anthropology in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Florida, considers that the influence of politicians like Marco Rubio and other Cuban Americans who will make up the Republican’s team could influence “reestablishing the previous measure.” “It is to be expected that the hard-line policy of the United States towards Cuba will be reinforced, summarized in the expression of maximum pressure to achieve changes in the Cuban regime,” he says.
