Havana, Cuba () — Marta Perdomo lives in anguish day and night for her two sons, Jorge and Nadir, imprisoned in Cuba for participating almost two years ago in the largest anti-government protests since the 1959 revolution. A call that, according to her account, she received at the end of February from the service internal security in Cuba only increased his anxiety.
“State security called me and asked if my children had passports. That alarmed me because then I thought they should know if my children had passports,” she told .
When Perdomo asked why, the response he received from the agent on the other end of the line was cryptic. “They told me there were ‘things on the table,'” Perdomo said.
Perdomo’s children face long prison terms, but she and other families have been filled with hope by the recent mass release of prisoners in authoritarian Nicaragua, Cuba’s close ally. More than 200 government opponents jailed there were stripped of their citizenship and sent to the United States in February.
A Catholic cardinal appeared to allude to a similar possibility during a rare visit to the island in February to meet with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. In a brief exchange with journalists, Cardinal Benaimino Stella said that, at the behest of Pope Francis, he had pushed for the release of the more than 700 people the Cuban government has charged or convicted for their involvement in the protests.
“The pope very much wants there to be a positive response,” Stella said.
“Amnesty, clemency, whatever it is called. Words are secondary. It is important that young people who spoke out at the time can return to their homes,” he added.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel (right) and Italian Cardinal Beniamino Stella (left) in Havana on February 8, 2023. Credit: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images
On July 11, 2021, Cubans, frustrated by power outages and shortages of food and medicine, took to the streets. Many demanded freedom and that Díaz-Canel leave power.
Díaz-Canel described the protesters as “vandals” and “counterrevolutionaries” and ordered the police and government supporters to restore order. Hundreds of people were detained and subsequently faced mass trials.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, who had previously promised to return to the truce of the Obama era, when diplomatic relations with the Cuban government were reestablished for the first time after more than half a century of broken ties, then criticized the repression .
Biden imposed economic sanctions on officials allegedly involved in the repression of the protests and described Cuba as a “failed state.” In conversations with their Cuban counterparts, US diplomats told them that the US-Cuba relationship would likely remain estranged if the protesters remained jailed.
Cuban officials offered little indication that the pressure campaign to release the protesters was having an effect.
However, given last month’s talks between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government, European diplomats in Havana told they were preparing to issue humanitarian visas to any prisoners who might be released by the government and leave the island for exile. abroad.
Diplomats cautioned that it was unclear how many, if any, prisoners would actually be released.
However, the Catholic Church has obtained in the past the release of prisoners from Cuban jails. Before the visits of Popes Benedict and Francis to the communist island, the Cuban government agreed to release thousands of prisoners.
And as part of secret talks to normalize relations with the Obama administration, some of which took place in the Vatican, Cuba also agreed to release from its jails 53 Cubans the United States considered political prisoners.
Cuban officials did not respond to ‘s requests for comment on the negotiations for the release of the prisoners.
It is not yet clear what Cuba could gain from a new release of prisoners, although the Cuban government has pushed for an easing of crushing US economic sanctions that authorities say are contributing to a mass exodus of people from the island.
Following his State of the Union address in February, Biden was heard telling Sen. Bob Menendez, a supporter of tougher sanctions against the Cuban government: “I need to talk to you about Cuba.”
The comment was interpreted by many Cuba watchers as a sign that changes in the relationship are on the way.
In the most suggestive comments yet that the US is negotiating the release of jailed protesters, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Brian Nichols said Tuesday while speaking about Cuba policy in Miami: “Publicly, and privately in conversations with Cuban officials, the US government continues to call for the release of political prisoners, and we always stress that the Cuban people must be able to choose where they live and the government must allow its citizens to return to Cuba. “.
“Although we are strongly opposed to forced exile,” Nichols continued. “The United States will not turn its back on political prisoners, and if they want to come to the United States, we will explore the avenues available under US law to welcome them.”
