Cuba says it will release 51 people from the island’s jails in an unexpected move

Mexican ship ARM Huasteco, carrying aid according to the Mexican government, arrives to Havana Bay, Cuba, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

HAVANA — Cuba’s government said Thursday night that it would release 51 people from the island’s prisons in an unexpected move.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the release in the upcoming days stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican.

The government did not identify who it would release, except to say that “all have served a significant part of their sentence and have maintained good conduct in prison.”

The announcement was made just hours Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is scheduled to speak early Friday in another rare meeting with the press “to address national and international issues.”

The government said it has granted pardons to 9,905 inmates since 2010. It added that in the past three years, another 10,000 people sentenced to imprisonment were released.

In January 2025, Cuba released prominent dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer as part of a government decision to gradually free more than 500 prisoners following talks with the Vatican.

Ferrer left Cuba last October and is now in the United States.

He was one of several prisoners released in early 2025 as part of talks with the Vatican. The releases began a day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.

It wasn’t immediately known if any of the people the government plans to release are political prisoners.

The nonprofit Prisoners Defenders has said there were 1,214 political prisoners in Cuba as of February 2026.

The Associated Press