{"id":40011,"date":"2026-04-03T13:59:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40011"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:59:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:59:49","slug":"cuba-to-pardon-more-than-2000-prisoners-as-us-eases-fuel-blockade-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40011","title":{"rendered":"Cuba to pardon more than 2,000 prisoners as US eases fuel blockade | Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Cuba has announced plans to pardon 2,010 prisoners as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d gesture during Holy Week, amid heightened US pressure on the government in Havana.<\/p>\n

The announcement on Thursday came days after Donald Trump eased a de facto oil blockade<\/a> of Cuba by allowing a Russian tanker to deliver crude oil to the nation.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration<\/a> has called for change in communist-run Cuba\u2019s system of government, and the US president has mused about \u201ctaking\u201d the island.<\/p>\n

Releasing political prisoners has long been a core US demand in Cuba, and the two sides have held talks recently<\/a>, with Havana promising last month to release dozens of individuals.<\/p>\n

Michael Bustamante, the chair of Cuban studies at the University of Miami, said: \u201cIt seems not far-fetched to think that this is a sign that some of the conversation between both governments is advancing. Perhaps slowly, but advancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo where? Unclear,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we will also have to see who is included in these releases to have a sense of their potential political significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cuban government has not said who will be pardoned, what crimes they committed or when they will be set free. It said e choice was based on the nature of their crimes, good behaviour in prison, health reasons and time served.<\/p>\n

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It added that the \u201chumanitarian and sovereign gesture\u201d would include young people, women, and prisoners over 60 years old who are scheduled for early release within the next six months to a year.<\/p>\n

Cuba said on 12 March that it would free 51 prisoners as a sign of \u201cgood will\u201d toward the Vatican, which has often acted as a mediator between Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n

A day later, President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel confirmed that talks had taken place between US and Cuban officials.<\/p>\n

Havana said on Thursday that its latest move would be the fifth time since 2011 that it had pardoned prisoners, amounting to more than 11,000 people.<\/p>\n

It said its decision was \u201ctaking place within the context of the religious observances of Holy Week \u2013 a customary practice within our criminal justice system and a reflection of the humanitarian legacy of the revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It added that foreigners were among those being pardoned, as well as Cuban citizens living abroad and sentenced in absentia.<\/p>\n

The government said the individuals being released from prison would not include people who committed murder, sexual assault, drug-related crimes, theft, illegal slaughter of livestock or crimes against authority.<\/p>\n

Also on Thursday, Russia announced it would send a second oil tanker to Cuba, which Bustamante highlighted as potentially significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is tempted to draw the conclusion or wonder if the Trump administration\u2019s decision to let in a Russian ship \u2026 and maybe another one, may or may not be related here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is a Cuban-American and a vociferous critic of Havana\u2019s government. He told Fox News on Tuesday that Cuba needed economic and political reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot fix their economy if you don\u2019t change their system of government,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut they\u2019re in a lot of trouble, there\u2019s no doubt about it, and we\u2019ll have more news on that fairly soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Cuba has announced plans to pardon 2,010 prisoners as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d gesture during Holy Week, amid heightened US pressure on the government in Havana. The announcement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}