Cuba starts freeing prisoners a day after the US said it would lift terror designation

Cuba started releasing some prisoners Wednesday as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the US designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.More than a dozen people who were convicted of different crimes — and some of them were arrested after taking part in the historic 2021 protests — were released during the day, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees on the island.Among those freed was tattooist Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, 24, who was detained in the 2021 protests and convicted to four years in prison for attacks and public disorder.She was released from a prison in the province of Camagüey, and told The Associated Press that eight men were also freed along with her.On Tuesday, the US government said it notified Congress about the intent to lift the designation of Cuba as part of a deal facilitated by the Vatican.Cuban authorities would release some of them before Biden’s administration ends on Jan.20, officials said.Hours later, the Cuban foreign ministry said the government informed Pope Francis it would gradually release 553 convicts as authorities explore legal and humanitarian ways to make it happen.Havana did not link the prisoners’ release to the US decision on lifting the designation but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican’s once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee, in which the Catholic faithful make pilgrimages to Rome.Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez did not mention the release on Wednesday — consistent with his stance the day before, indicating they were separate issues — but mentioned removing Cuba from the list of states sponsors of terrorism.“You can reverse a country’s status on that list, but the tremendous damage to US foreign policy cannot be undone,” he told the AP.

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