Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island.
Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump.
“Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the past two decades.
Photo: AFP
His latest stint lasted three-and-a-half years.
Shortly after his release on Thursday, Ferrer urged Cubans on a Miami-based radio program to “not be afraid” to stand up to a government he said was “increasingly scared” and “increasingly weak.”
In return for being removed from the US terror list that includes North Korea, Iran and Syria, cash-strapped Cuba promised to release 553 people — many of whom the Biden administration said were “political prisoners.”
Most were arrested for taking part in mass July 2021 demonstrations against the government over recurring power outages, food shortages and price hikes.
Cuban Supreme Court Vice President Maricela Sosa said that “between Wednesday and Thursday 127 [detainees] have been granted early release.”
Reporters on Thursday saw four prisoners emerge from the San Miguel del Padron prison on the outskirts of the capital, Havana.
Marlon Brando Diaz, who was serving an 18-year sentence for his participation in the 2021 protests, said tearfully that he was thankful for “a new chance in life.”
“It’s a new start,” he said, as he hugged emotional family members.
The deal with Washington paves the way for increased US investment in the Caribbean island, which has been under a trade embargo for more than six decades.
However, in a sign that the thaw might be short-lived, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, suggested Biden’s decision could be reversed.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is vociferously critical of that country’s government and said Trump’s incoming administration was not bound by Biden’s policies.
“There is zero doubt in my mind that they [the Cuban government] meet all the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terrorism,” he said at his US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
The trickle of prisoner releases caused anguish for families still waiting for news of their loved ones.
Authorities have not released a list or a timetable of those to be freed.
Analysts said Cuba could be stalling to ensure Trump upholds the deal when he returns to the White House next week, with the remaining prisoners serving as a bargaining chip.
If so, “it’s a pretty risky move,” said Michael Bustamante, chair of Cuban studies at the University of Miami. “The Trump administration might not take kindly to this game at all.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS