In one of his final official acts, and in the wake of a Vatican-mediated deal with the Cuban government, Joe Biden on January 14 removed Cuba from a US terrorism blacklist in exchange for an agreement by the Cuban government to free 553 prisoners.
The United States, the European Union, the Catholic Church and rights groups have long pushed the island nation to release hundreds of protesters jailed following anti-government protests in July 2021, the largest since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
In a statement after the deal, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, “As part of the close and fluid relations with the Vatican State, I informed Pope Francis of [the decision to free the prisoners] in the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee.”
The deal was overturned by the new US presidency just six days after Donald Trump was sworn in, but prisoners have continued to be sporadically released. In February, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called the gradual release of the Cuban prisoners “a sign of great hope” at the start of the Holy Year, and he expressed hope for more “gestures of clemency” from governments in the spirit of the Jubilee.