the two sides have held talks recently<\/a>, with Havana promising last month to release dozens of individuals.<\/p>\nMichael Bustamante, the chair of Cuban studies at the University of Miami, said: \u201cIt seems not far-fetched to think that this is a sign that some of the conversation between both governments is advancing. Perhaps slowly, but advancing.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo where? Unclear,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we will also have to see who is included in these releases to have a sense of their potential political significance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cuban government has not said who will be pardoned, what crimes they committed or when they will be set free. It said e choice was based on the nature of their crimes, good behaviour in prison, health reasons and time served.<\/p>\n
It added that the \u201chumanitarian and sovereign gesture\u201d would include young people, women, and prisoners over 60 years old who are scheduled for early release within the next six months to a year.<\/p>\n
Cuba said on 12 March that it would free 51 prisoners as a sign of \u201cgood will\u201d toward the Vatican, which has often acted as a mediator between Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n
A day later, President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel confirmed that talks had taken place between US and Cuban officials.<\/p>\n
Havana said on Thursday that its latest move would be the fifth time since 2011 that it had pardoned prisoners, amounting to more than 11,000 people.<\/p>\n
It said its decision was \u201ctaking place within the context of the religious observances of Holy Week \u2013 a customary practice within our criminal justice system and a reflection of the humanitarian legacy of the revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added that foreigners were among those being pardoned, as well as Cuban citizens living abroad and sentenced in absentia.<\/p>\n
The government said the individuals being released from prison would not include people who committed murder, sexual assault, drug-related crimes, theft, illegal slaughter of livestock or crimes against authority.<\/p>\n
Also on Thursday, Russia announced it would send a second oil tanker to Cuba, which Bustamante highlighted as potentially significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne is tempted to draw the conclusion or wonder if the Trump administration\u2019s decision to let in a Russian ship \u2026 and maybe another one, may or may not be related here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is a Cuban-American and a vociferous critic of Havana\u2019s government. He told Fox News on Tuesday that Cuba needed economic and political reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot fix their economy if you don\u2019t change their system of government,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut they\u2019re in a lot of trouble, there\u2019s no doubt about it, and we\u2019ll have more news on that fairly soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuba has announced plans to pardon 2,010 prisoners as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d gesture during Holy Week, amid heightened US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-579758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}