The Cuban government said late Thursday it has pardoned and released 2,010 prisoners, a sweeping move announced as the island faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration, including an oil blockade that until recently halted fuel shipments.
Cuba’s Embassy in the U.S. announced the pardons on X, calling them a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture.” Officials said those released include younger people, women, those over 60, Cuban citizens living abroad and foreign nationals. Prisoners convicted of various violent crimes were not eligible for the pardon. It remains unclear whether political prisoners were among those freed; the nonprofit Prisoners Defenders has counted 1,211 political prisoners in Cuba.
This is the second, larger release this year. Last month Cuba freed a smaller group of 51 detainees. The pardons come as the country experiences at least a partial reprieve from an energy crisis that crippled the island after the Trump administration threatened steep tariffs on nations that exported oil to Cuba, prompting a months-long slowdown in shipments.
Earlier this week, U.S. officials allowed a sanctioned Russian-flagged tanker carrying more than 700,000 barrels of oil to dock in Havana, and Russia has said it plans to send a second tanker, providing a vital supply lifeline. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the administration permitted the first tanker for “humanitarian reasons.” President Trump said last weekend, “We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need…they have to survive.” Leavitt added that U.S. policy toward Cuba has not changed and that future decisions on tanker access will be made “case-by-case.”
The prisoner releases and the oil decisions come amid heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba. President Trump has suggested he wants major changes in Cuban governance and last month floated the idea of “taking Cuba in some form,” saying, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it.”
Administration officials have taken a more aggressive foreign policy posture recently: U.S. forces carried out an operation in January to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an ally of Havana, and the U.S. has been engaged in an aerial campaign against Iran. Trump has said “Cuba’s going to be next,” calling the country “failing.”
Senator and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio has pushed for economic and political reforms in Cuba, saying the island needs new leadership and that “you cannot fix their economy if you don’t change their system of government.” He called Cuban leaders “incompetent” and hinted at further actions in the near future.
Cuba has acknowledged negotiating with the United States, with former president Raúl Castro reportedly involved in talks. But Havana has pushed back against suggestions of U.S. takeover. President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez warned last month that “any external aggressor will clash with an impregnable resistance.”