Related videos:
The Official Gazette of Cuba published this Monday the complete nominal list of those benefited by the Presidential Decree 1212 of 2026, which grants total and definitive pardon to 2,010 sanctioned individuals.
The document, signed by Miguel Díaz-Canel on April 3, appears in the Official Gazette No. 11 Extraordinary Special and spans over 100 pages with names and legal cases.
The most revealing piece of information provided by this Monday's publication is the presence in the list of 95 individuals whose cases are linked to the Chamber of Crimes against State Security of the Provincial People's Court of Havana, which specializes in cases of dissent and political activism.
That figure partially contradicts the official discourse with which the regime announced the pardon on April 2, when it presented the measure as primarily aimed at common prisoners and explicitly excluded "offenses against authority," a category commonly used against protesters and dissidents.
The decree is based on Article 128 of the Cuban Constitution and the Pardon Law of 1919, justifying it as "a humanitarian and sovereign gesture, as a common practice in our criminal justice system, and in the context of the religious celebrations of Holy Week."
Among those granted clemency are individuals with cases in Military Courts in Havana, Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Villa Clara, and Mayabeque, as well as municipal and provincial courts throughout the country.
The implementation of the decree was entrusted to the president of the Supreme People's Court and the ministers of the Interior and Justice.
The publication of the Gaceta comes nearly two months after the signing of the decree, which has prevented independent verification until now of who was actually granted clemency and under what judicial circumstances.
When the regime announced the measure in April, the reactions from human rights organizations were critical. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights demanded the release of all political prisoners and described the advancements as "poor."
José Daniel Ferrer accused the regime of using the pardon to "get out of a tight spot," while artists and activists denounced "trickery" and "manipulation."
Prisoners Defenders, which counted 1,214 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of February 2026, expressed skepticism about the seriousness of the measure, although it noted that it would celebrate any release that benefited political prisoners and their families.
The U.S. senator Rick Scott publicly criticized the pardon for excluding political prisoners.
This is the second pardon so far in 2026 and the fifth since 2011, a period during which the regime has "benefited" more than 11,000 people through these measures. Previous mass pardons included 2,604 inmates in 2019 and 787 in 2016.
Filed under: