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AFP, HAVANA
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Cuba’s communist authorities on Friday began a prisoner release negotiated with the Vatican and confirmed that talks were underway with Washington amid intense pressure from US President Donald Trump.
The Justicia 11J rights group said it had been able to confirm the release of two people jailed for taking part in major anti-government protests on July 11, 2021.
Cuba on Thursday said that it would release 51 prisoners after talks with the Holy See, which has in the past acted as mediator between Havana and Washington.
Electric wires hang across balconies with the Capitol building in the background in Havana on March 5.
Photo: EPA
Havana has described the prisoner releases as a “goodwill” gesture to the Vatican.
Agence France-Presse witnessed the arrival home of Adael Leyva Diaz, 29, who was serving a 13-year sentence, and Ronald Garcia Sanchez, 33, sentenced to 14 years.
Both live in the Havana suburb of Arroyo Naranjo.
Justice 11J, which tracks arrests since the 2021 protests, said there are at least 760 political prisoners in Cuba.
The unusual show of clemency came hours after Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed that his government was in talks with the US.
Trump has said Cuba would be “next” on his agenda after Iran and the US overthrow of Cuba’s top ally, former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
A White House official on Friday repeated Trump’s claim that Cuba is a “failing nation” and that a deal targeting its government “would be very easily made.”
Trump has placed the impoverished island under a US oil blockade, strangling its fuel supply on the basis of what he called the “extraordinary threat” posed by Cuba to the US. This comes on top of a six-decade-old US trade embargo.
During a meeting with top Cuban officials, broadcast live on national television, Diaz-Canel said Havana was negotiating with Washington, but gave little away about the nature of the talks.
“Cuban officials recently held discussions with representatives of the United States government,” he said, confirming negotiations first revealed by Trump in mid-January.
“These conversations have been aimed at seeking solutions — through dialogue — to the bilateral differences,” he added.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who had offered to mediate between Cuba and the US, welcomed the talks, highlighting “the injustice of the blockade against the Cuban people for all these years.”
Two Mexican Navy ships bearing 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid — the third Mexican aid shipment since last month — on Friday arrived in Cuba.
US media reports say Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, a grandson of former Cuban president Raul Castro, has been holding secret talks for weeks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American.
“As long as it benefits us, we’ll reach an agreement, but on our terms,” said Sergio Guerra, a 55-year-old food trader.
Rodriguez Castro was seated in the front row at the meeting addressed by Diaz-Canel on Friday.
The Cuban government has been in Trump’s sights since the January overthrow of Washington’s other foe in the Caribbean, Maduro, on whom Cuba relied for cheap oil.
The oil embargo has brought Cuba’s already troubled economy to the brink of collapse.
The blockade has also starved Cuba’s power plants and farms of fuel and brought daily life to a near standstill. Airlines have curtailed or suspend flights to the nation for lack of fuel.
Trump last weekend predicted that Cuba “is going to fall pretty soon” and told CNN: “They want to make a deal so badly.”
