Cuba frees remaining political prisoners

According to a senior Obama administration official, the Cuban government has released all of its 53 political prisoners, as part of its normalisation deal.

This development follows last month’s agreement between the US and Cuba to normalise relations between the two countries. This step ended a 54-year US trade embargo on Cuba.

A US official said; “We welcome this very positive development and are pleased that the Cuban government followed through on this commitment.”

“These political prisoners were individuals who had been cited by various human rights organisations as being imprisoned by the Cuban government for exercising internationally protected freedoms or for their promotion of political and social reforms in Cuba.” Said the official.

The US official said that the Cuban government had notified the US government that they had completed the release of the 53 political prisoners that they had promised to free.

Dissident leaders said late last week that Cuba had released at least 35 of the political detainees, as part of the deal with the US administration.