The Cuban government announced on Thursday the decision to pardon more than two thousand incarcerated individuals as part of a process of penitentiary benefits outlined in the law.
According to Granma, the measure will allow for the release of 2,010 sentenced individuals, in accordance with Article 90, Section II of the Constitution of the Republic.
According to the information released, the pardon is based on an assessment of the nature of the crimes committed, the behavior exhibited while in custody, the time served of the sentence, and the health status of the inmates.
Among those benefiting are young people, women, seniors over 60 years old, individuals nearing the end of their sentence in the last semester or next year, as well as foreigners and Cubans living abroad.
The authorities specified that those who committed serious offenses such as sexual assault, violent child molestation, murder, homicide, drug trafficking, robbery with violence or force, corruption of minors, crimes against authority, as well as repeat and multiple offenders are excluded from the pardon.
Individuals who had previously received pardons and committed crimes again were also excluded.
This is the second release of individuals deprived of their liberty so far this year, occurring in the context of the religious celebrations of Holy Week, a practice that the government has described as customary within its criminal justice system.
With this decision, the total number of pardons granted by the Cuban government since 2011 reaches five, benefiting more than 11,000 people during that period.
As a critical point, it is noteworthy that among those excluded are the so-called “crimes against authority,” a category that in the Cuban context is often used against protesters and critical citizens, thereby excluding individuals sanctioned for political reasons.
Moreover, the exclusion of those who have previously received pardons reinforces a punitive approach that does not distinguish between common recidivism and contexts marked by the country's own social crisis.
This new pardon adds to other recent and similar releases used by the Cuban regime in various political and diplomatic contexts.
In March, the authorities announced the release of 51 individuals sentenced after discussions with the Vatican, without specifying identities or clarifying whether they included political prisoners.
A year earlier, in January 2025, the government announced the release of 553 inmates as part of negotiations with the United States and with the mediation of the Holy See.
In previous years, there have also been mass pardons, such as the 2,604 prisoners in 2019 or the 787 released in 2016.
In most of these processes, the releases have primarily consisted of common prisoners, with no transparency regarding the inclusion of political or conscience prisoners, whose existence the regime systematically denies.
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