Cuba has granted early release to 553 prisoners, fulfilling a deal brokered in the final days of Joe Biden’s U.S. presidency—a deal that was later abandoned by his successor, Donald Trump, a Supreme Court official confirmed Monday.
“The process was successfully completed,” said Maricela Soza Ravelo, vice president of Cuba’s Supreme Court, on state television. She noted that 378 applications for release were processed in January, followed by 175 in February.
Biden’s Last-Minute Agreement, Trump’s Reversal
On January 14, 2025, as one of his final acts in office, Biden removed Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the release of 553 prisoners. However, just six days later, after Trump was sworn in as president, he swiftly revoked the Vatican-mediated agreement, halting further releases after 192 prisoners had been freed.
Most of the released individuals had been arrested during the rare mass protests against the Cuban government in July 2021. Following Trump’s order, prisoner releases slowed but continued sporadically in the weeks that followed, according to human rights groups.
Lack of Transparency and High-Profile Cases
Cuban authorities have never publicly disclosed a list of released prisoners or a release schedule. However, the “Todos” platform, which compiles data from multiple non-governmental organizations, has confirmed 212 releases, including opposition figures José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro.
Despite the agreement, dissident artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, sentenced to five and seven years in prison, respectively, remain incarcerated.
According to official Cuban figures, around 500 demonstrators arrested during the July 2021 protests have received prison sentences, some as long as 25 years. While some have completed their sentences and been released, human rights NGOs and the U.S. Embassy in Havana estimate that about 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars.
