The government said it was making the release ‘in the context of the religious celebrations of Holy Week.’
The Cuban government announced the release of 2,010 prisoners for Easter on April 2 — the highest number in recent years — amid pressure from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
This measure was granted after a “pardon approved by the Government of Cuba” and after the analysis of a series of circumstances of the prisoners, such as “good behavior maintained in prison, having extinguished an important part of their sanction and state of health,” according to a note from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Among the released prisoners are young people, women, and people over 60 years old. Excluded from the release were those who have committed crimes such as sexual assault, pedophilia with violence, murder, robbery with violence or force with weapons, and “crimes against authority.”
Specifying that it was the “second release” of 2026, the ministry said that the pardons were announced “in the context of the religious celebrations of Holy Week.”
The statement pointed out that this is the governmentʼs “fifth pardon” since 2011, by which a total of “more than 11,000 people have been
