'Uncertainty never ends' as deal to free Cuba prisoners unravels under Trump

by Leticia PINEDA

Just two weeks ago, Cubans celebrated the anticipated release of jailed protesters in a deal struck under US then-president Joe Biden. Now hope is waning for hundreds still behind bars after Donald Trump scrapped the agreement.

In one of his final official acts, Biden on January 14 removed Cuba from a US list of state terror sponsors in return for the communist island agreeing to free 553 prisoners.

But six days later marked the swearing-in of Trump, who swiftly overturned the Vatican-mediated deal after just 192 confirmed releases of people dubbed "political prisoners" by rights groups.

Most had been rounded up in a crackdown on rare mass protests against the government in July 2021.

Trump's decision, though not unexpected, came as a blow to prisoners' loved ones who nevertheless try to stay positive.

"We cannot lose hope because I cannot imagine that my son, who is innocent, will remain in prison for 10 years," Liset Fonseca, 64, told AFP of activist Roberto Perez Fonseca, one of the protesters jailed.

The releases, which started the day after Biden's announcement, ended on Trump's inauguration day January 20, according to rights groups.

"The releases have not resumed," Camila Rodriguez of the Mexico-based NGO Justicia 11J, named after the date of the 2021 protests, said this week.

The "Todos" platform that collates information from several non-governmental organizations has counted 192 releases, including that of opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer and dissident Felix Navarro.

The authorities never released a calendar for people to be freed, nor did it provide a list of names.

Observers accuse Havana of keeping some behind bars to use as bargaining chips in potential negotiations with Trump.

- 'I have faith' -

Navarro, 71, said he was arrested with his 38-year-old daughter Sayli in 2021 when they approached police for information about protesters detained.

He was released on January 18, but Sayli is still serving an eight-year sentence on charges including contempt and public disorder.

"I have faith that they will free her one day," Navarro told AFP of his daughter, hopeful the Vatican will be able to enforce the deal.

Navarro said he takes hope from his own release from prison in 2011 following a previous arrest in 2003 in a crackdown on dissent dubbed the "Black Spring."

His liberation that time was also the result of Catholic Church mediation.

Navarro and his daughter, Fonseca and Ferrer have all been declared "prisoners of conscience" by Amnesty International, along with artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara.

Alcantara was arrested as he attempted to join the 2021 protests and is now serving a five-year prison term on prior charges that include contempt.

"Uncertainty never ends, and neither does hope. Both will coexist until he is released," Alcantara's friend Yanelys Nunez told AFP.

According to official figures, about 500 of the 2021 protesters have been given prison terms of up to 25 years.

Some have since been released after serving their sentences.

Rights groups and the US embassy in Havana estimate the total number of "political prisoners" in Cuba to be around 1,000.

The government denies it holds any political prisoners, and accuses opponents of being "mercenaries" in the pay of the United States.

Until the dust settles on Trump's reinstatement of Cuba on the US terror list, every family member of someone jailed in Cuba "is hoping that their loved one is among the winners of this risky lottery," said Nunez.

© Agence France-Presse