Cuba will release 51 people from prison in an unexpected move
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s government said Thursday night that it would release 51 people from the island’s prisons in an unexpected move.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the release in the upcoming days stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican.
The government did not identify who it would release, except to say that “all have served a significant part of their sentence and have maintained good conduct in prison.”
The announcement was made just hours Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is scheduled to speak early Friday in another rare meeting with the press “to address national and international issues.”
The government said it has granted pardons to 9,905 inmates since 2010. It added that in the past three years, another 10,000 people sentenced to imprisonment were released.
In January 2025, Cuba released prominent dissident José Daniel Ferrer as part of a government decision to gradually free more than 500 prisoners following talks with the Vatican.
Ferrer left Cuba last October and is now in the United States.
He was one of several prisoners released in early 2025 as part of talks with the Vatican. The releases began a day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
It wasn’t immediately known if any of the people the government plans to release are political prisoners.
The nonprofit Prisoners Defenders has said there were 1,214 political prisoners in Cuba as of February 2026.