Cuba is preparing to release over 2000 prisoners under pressure from the United States

Cuba will free 2,010 prisoners as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture”, its government has announced, as it faces continued political pressure from the United States.

Among those released will be foreign citizens, young people, women and people over the age of 60, a statement from the Cuban embassy in the United States said on Thursday.

The release took place “in the context of the religious celebrations of Holy Week, which is a usual practice in our criminal justice system.”

Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has made clear his desire to change Cuba’s communist leadership and has blocked oil shipments to the island, causing severe fuel shortages and widespread blackouts.

Last week, a Russian-owned tanker carrying about 730,000 barrels of crude oil became the first to dock at one of Cuba’s ports since early January — something Trump said he had “no problem” with.

According to Human Rights Watch, Cuba holds hundreds of political prisoners behind bars, while government critics are subject to harassment and criminal prosecution.

Eligibility for release was based on “a careful analysis” of the crimes, along with their “good behavior during detention, the fact that they had served a significant portion of their sentence and their state of health,” the embassy said.

It is the second time this year that Cuba has announced the release of a prisoner. In March, after talks with the Vatican, 51 prisoners were freed.

In 2025, Cuba released 553 people in a deal brokered by the Vatican and the United States.

Trump’s rhetoric on Latin America has shifted attention to Cuba since the United States seized Venezuela’s former president, Nicolás Maduro, in a raid in Caracas in January.

Venezuela’s interim government has also since released political prisoners – a key US demand – although a prisoners’ rights group says only a third of those promised have been released.

Venezuela had been supplying oil to Cuba on highly preferential terms, which the United States stopped while threatening tariffs on products from nations that had sent oil to the Caribbean island – exacerbating an existing energy crisis.

Cuba’s communist government, led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, is in talks with the Trump administration to try to reach a deal to end the impasse.

But both sides have publicly established a series of political and economic red lines that would make it difficult to find common ground.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that the United States could “take” Cuba by force and install a friendlier regime.

Last week, the World Health Organization warned that severe fuel shortages mean Cuban hospitals are struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services.

Excerpt from BBC.