2026年3月12日 / 美国东部时间晚上10:19 / CBS/美联社
古巴政府周四晚间表示，将从该国监狱中释放51人，这一意外举措正值特朗普政府对古巴施加巨大压力之际。
外交部在一份声明中表示，释放行动将在未来几天内进行。该外交部称此次释放是出于善意，源于古巴与梵蒂冈的密切关系——梵蒂冈过去曾帮助促成囚犯释放协议和美国与古巴关系正常化谈判。
古巴政府没有指明将释放哪些人，只表示“所有人都已服完相当长一段时间的刑期，并在狱中表现良好”。
目前尚不清楚政府计划释放的人中是否有政治犯。
非营利组织“囚犯捍卫者”称，截至2026年2月，古巴共有1214名政治犯。
古巴政府称，自2010年以来已赦免9905名囚犯。该政府还补充说，在过去三年中，另有10000名被判刑的人员获得释放。
这一宣布发布几小时后，古巴总统米格尔·迪亚斯-卡内尔定于周五早些时候召开另一场罕见的新闻发布会，“就国内和国际事务发表讲话”。
特朗普政府近几个月来试图阻止向古巴运送石油，以向这个岛国政府施压。古巴的燃料供应已经告急，能源危机进一步恶化。此外，特朗普任命的迈阿密联邦最高检察官也在考虑对古巴政府官员提起刑事指控。
特朗普总统及其政府成员暗示，这个自1959年菲德尔·卡斯特罗掌权以来长期执政的政权可能会垮台。上周，总统称美国正在与古巴政府对话，但补充道：“我们很可能最终会友好接管古巴。”
2025年1月，作为与梵蒂冈谈判的一部分，古巴释放了著名异见人士何塞·丹尼尔·费雷尔。费雷尔去年10月离开古巴，现在在美国。
他是2025年初与梵蒂冈谈判释放的几名囚犯之一。这些释放行动是在当时的总统乔·拜登政府宣布打算取消美国对古巴作为支持恐怖主义国家的定性一天后开始的。
梵蒂冈还参与了奥巴马政府与古巴早期关系正常化谈判。
Cuba will release 51 people from prison, an unexpected move amid pressure from Trump
March 12, 2026 / 10:19 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Cuba’s government said Thursday night it would release 51 people from the island’s prisons, in an unexpected move that comes as the Trump administration puts immense pressure on the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the release will take place in the coming days. It cast the release as an act of goodwill stemming from the country’s close relationship with the Vatican, which has helped broker prisoner release deals and U.S.-Cuba normalization talks in the past.
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.”
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 Cuban 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.
The announcement was made just hours before Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is scheduled to speak early Friday in another rare meeting with the press “to address national and international issues.”
The Trump administration has sought to block oil shipments to Cuba in recent months in a bid to pressure the island nation’s government. Fuel supplies in Cuba have run low, worsening the country’s energy crisis. The Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Miami is also weighing possible criminal charges against Cuban government officials.
President Trump and members of his administration have suggested the island’s longstanding regime — which has ruled Cuba since Fidel Casto’s rise to power in 1959 — could fall. Last week, the president said the U.S. is talking to the Cuban government, but added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
In January 2025, Cuba released prominent dissident José 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 then-President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Vatican was also involved in early talks between the Obama administration and Cuba to normalize relations between the two countries.