Cuba's top tribunal said late on Monday 553 prisoners had been released following a deal brokered by the Vatican that seemed in limbo after Donald Trump reversed a Biden administration pledge to ease sanctions on the country.
A general view shows a street of La Guinera neighborhood in Havana, Cuba, January 15, 2025.
Former President Joe Biden in January agreed to remove Cuba from a U.S. terrorism blacklist in exchange for the prisoner release in negotiations with the Catholic Church.
Trump rescinded the Biden deal upon taking office, putting Cuba back on the list, slapping the island with fresh sanctions and prompting its communist-run government to temporarily pause the prisoner release.
But Cuba's state-run media said on the evening TV newscast Monday that judicial officials had confirmed the "early release" of 553 prisoners.
"Authorities of the Supreme People's Court of Cuba affirm that these 553 people are already free and that the process has concluded," the report said.
Rights groups began reporting a fresh trickle of prisoners released from the island's jails last week despite Trump's decision to back out of the Biden deal. The groups, however, said some of those liberated appeared to be common criminals.
The Biden administration had initially said Cuba would release "political prisoners" as part of the broader deal.
But Cuba did not specify, saying it would gradually release "553 people sanctioned for diverse crimes."
The United States, the European Union, the Catholic Church and watchdog groups have long pushed Cuba to release hundreds of protesters jailed following anti-government protests on July 11, 2021, the largest since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Cuban authorities maintain those it jailed committed crimes ranging from arson to vandalism and sedition.
Watchdog groups said around 200 prisoners tied with protests had been released as of late last week, though they said scarce information made it difficult to be sure.
The Cuban state-run media report on Monday did not specify how many of the 553 prisoners released under the Vatican-brokered deal had been detained in relation to the 2021 protests.
Source USNEWS/Reuters
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that a group of federal agents had arrested a man in Broward County who was accused of formerly spying for Cuba.
HSI did not identify the gray-haired man by name. The announcement on X described him as “a former member of Cuban intelligence” who had “fraudulently” obtained his lawful permanent resident status and posed a “threat to national security.”
According to Nestor Yglesias, a Miami-based spokesman for HSI, the arrest was in West Park. Aside from HSI, it also involved agents with the FBI and ICE.
It’s unclear if the man was related in any way to the case of Manuel Rocha, a Colombian-American former U.S. diplomat who was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year for spying for Cuba for decades before an undercover FBI agent caught him in Miami.
In a recorded meeting, Rocha, 73, a former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia also known as Victor Manuel Rocha, referred to the U.S. as the “enemy” and boasted about how he pretended to be a hard-nosed conservative while secretly operating as an ideological spy who admired Fidel Castro.
Source: WPLG Channel 10
The U.S. State Department under Secretary Marco Rubio abruptly canceled
foreign aid programs supporting opposition activists, political
prisoners and religious groups in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, after concluding that they were not “in the national interest.” raising concerns about a shift in U.S. foreign policy.
The canceled programs were managed by the International Republican Institute (IRI), a nonprofit organization linked to the ruling party, and were focused on promoting democracy in authoritarian countries, according to a publication from El Nuevo Herald.
The publication states that “all but three of the 95 programs” that the Institute had in these countries were abruptly canceled. The remaining three programs, related to groups in Venezuela, are on hold, following President Donald Trump’s executive order to freeze all foreign aid funds for 90 days.
“The rest of the 175 programs of the Institute worldwide are also in limbo because they rely on funds directly allocated by Congress to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The NED has said it has been unable to access the money,” the article reads.
In the cancellation notices sent by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), it was stated that the contracts “were not aligned” with the agencies’ priorities and were not “in the national interest.”
“The IRI’s Democratic counterpart, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), is facing a similar challenge. Sources said that about a hundred programs were terminated, and only one program remained in the region, focused on Venezuela,” says the publication.
Most employees of both institutes, the National Endowment for Democracy, and other organizations working with foreign aid programs have been given administrative leave.
A Supreme Court ruling ordered the US government to release part of the funds owed for the work already carried out by some of these organizations and contractors managing foreign aid programs. However, with so many contracts already canceled and staff on leave or dismissed, it is unclear how the government will proceed.
In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, February 26, 2024, regarding the progress of US interests in the Western Hemisphere, Florida Senator Rick Scott echoed current opinions on foreign aid among Trump administration officials in an exchange about how to justify the money spent to taxpayers.
“My problem is that I can’t go to Florida and say, ‘Boy, I’m excited about how much money we spent on foreign aid because something might happen. Let’s see: the Castro regime still controls Cuba, Venezuela just stole another election, Ortega is strengthening himself in Nicaragua,'” said the senator.
The suspension of foreign aid programs for the promotion of democracy in authoritarian countries, a bipartisan US policy maintained for decades, has left many wondering if the Trump Administration has abandoned that objective.
El Nuevo Herald also indicates that the issue was addressed in a call with IRI leaders to warn staff working for the Florida Congressional delegation, home to the largest Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan communities in the US, “that the organization would not survive much longer without funding, probably only a few weeks.”
They add that in the call, the president of the International Republican Institute, Daniel Twining, reportedly said that “cuts to democracy promotion would only benefit dictators in places like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.”
Source: The Miami Herald
Miami - A permit issued by the United States government allowing energy giant Chevron Corp. to pump and export Venezuelan oil will be terminated this week, ending what became a financial lifeline for the South American country.
There was no mention of California-based Chevron nor the permit, formally known as a general license, that exempts the company from economic sanctions and allows it to export and sell Venezuelan oil in the U.S. But it is the only Venezuela-related license whose issuance and renewal information match the dates mentioned.
Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves and once used them to power Latin America’s strongest economy. But corruption, mismanagement and eventual U.S. economic sanctions saw production decline steadily.
Wednesday’s announcement, which Venezuela’s Communist Vice President Delcy Rodriguez characterized as “harmful and inexplicable,” put a quick end to what Maduro’s government had hoped would be an improved relation with the White House following the Feb. 1 visit of a US envoy to Caracas, the capital. Shortly after that visit, Venezuela’s government began taking back migrants deported from the U.S.
Chevron, which first invested in Venezuela in the 1920s, does business in the country through joint ventures with the state-owned company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA.
The joint ventures produced about 200,000 barrels of oil a day in 2019, but the following year, U.S. sanctions imposed by the US to try to topple Maduro forced Chevron to wind down production. When the company got the license to export oil to the U.S. in November 2022, the joint ventures quickly began producing 80,000 barrels a day, and by 2024, they topped their daily output from 2019.
The terms of the license bar Chevron from directly paying taxes or royalties to Venezuela’s government. But the company sends money to the joint ventures, which are majority-owned by PDVSA.
PDVSA exported only 10,000 barrels per day to Cuba in the first month of the year, 65% less than in December 2024
Oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba fell in January, 2025, to an all-time low of just 10,000 barrels per day (bpd), 65% less than last December, when 29,000 arrived.
Throughout January, the Cuban authorities have warned on several occasions about the lack of fuel and its consequences on energy production. The Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) has attributed the blackouts to this shortage, which largely affects distributed generation plants.
Let me clarify from the very beginning to avoid offending sensitivities. When it comes to blackouts, Havana sets the reference point because the rest of the country lives a very different policy.
For about two years now, most of Cuba has been receiving roughly six hours of electricity per day. The only exceptions are circuits connected to hospitals that do not have operational backup generators.
When those generators are repaired or acquired, those locations immediately return to the standard routine of at least 18 hours without electricity.
In contrast, Havana is treated much more leniently. Blackouts there are shorter, scheduled whenever possible, and occur mainly during daylight hours.
From mid-December until last week, there were relatively short blackouts only in some neighborhoods in the capital, which is why we refer to their return now. However, we must reiterate that Havana is an exception, as those in other regions of the country saw no improvement in their harsh daily reality.
Having clarified that, let’s talk about the attempt to schedule the blackouts. Until last year, the planned schedules were mostly adhered to. However, in 2025, the situation has turned into complete chaos, with announced outages rarely being followed.
Additionally, the hours without electricity have increased. Whereas last year they typically lasted four hours on alternating days, they first went up to five hours, and this week, they reached six. These six hours are now divided into two three-hour segments, including nighttime outages (until around 8:00 p.m., though in some areas, even early morning hours were affected).
The latest “experiment” wasn’t repeated, leading me to believe it was just a trial run. However, in this country, experiments of this kind tend to become permanent.
When authorities announced the suspension of non-essential educational and work activities for this Friday, we feared the worst. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as that weekend in October when the entire island suffered a total blackout for three days.
As was stated when the economic plans for this year were presented, it will be impossible to meet the population’s energy needs due to insufficient power generation capacity.
At that time, it was projected that 18,606 GW would be generated in 2025, but achieving this would require a significant increase in renewable energy sources. The daily average availability would need to remain at 1,400 MW—far below the average demand of 3,000 MW.
Experts estimated that between $8 billion and $10 billion and more than ten years would be needed to fully restore the National Electro-Energy System. As a result, hopes were not high.
In response, the government is resorting to barrio-debates, a term that seemed obsolete for years but now appears to be making a comeback. As of February 18, officials from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) announced that “specialists” from various ministries would “explain the impact of the criminal US blockade policy against Cuban families” as the cause of the blackouts.
Honestly, I don’t know if this move will help or hurt them, because people are really upset. But it does show their fear of another July 11. While the presence of government officials, including police representatives might be intended as a form of intimidation, it could just as easily serve as the perfect setting for protests.
Amid this situation, several protests have gone viral in different parts of the country, with particular attention drawn to one in the Santiago de Cuba town of Palma Soriano, organized by the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu).
The demonstration was small, with around a dozen participants, but what stood out was that it was led by an organization rather than just random individuals. It was also significant that the protest was headed by Jose Daniel Ferrer, the regime’s most feared political opponent, who was recently released from prison.
Ferrer remains “under tight control,” as Cubans say, but his influence and ability to mobilize people—even with just a cellphone—are undeniable. He has earned respect from both supporters and critics for his unwavering stance against the dictatorship.
Since his release on January 16, after spending three and a half years in prison, he has faced constant harassment. On January 27, he refused to respond to a police summons, and this month, he was summoned again by the Municipal Court of Santiago de Cuba.
He has also denounced ongoing surveillance by state security, including the use of drones to monitor his home. From there, he communicates daily with victims of the regime, either in person or by phone, while his wife uses their home as an independent medical clinic.
This example of resistance has left a mark on public consciousness. Despite strict state security controls, Ferrer makes the most of every minute of his freedom, knowing that it could end at any moment. This week, he called for Cuban exiles to support independent media.
His appeal was backed by other dissidents, including:
Felix Navarro Rodríguez of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy
Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White
Manuel Cuesta Morua, vice president of the Council for the Transition in Cuba
Ivan Hernandez Carrillo of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba
Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramirez of the Citizen Reflection and Reconciliation Movement
Former political prisoner Ángel Moya
This is highly delicate work, especially when carried out from within Cuba. The dictatorship consistently harasses journalists and cracks down on the funding of independent media. Many of these outlets survive under extremely precarious conditions as a result.
Thanks to the digital era, however, these independent media sources have become known to a significant portion of the Cuban population, who for decades had only the official state media as their sole source of information.