Cuba releases political prisoners in deal with US

Cuba has released all of the 53 political prisoners it promised to free as part of the deal announced last month to begin normalizing diplomatic relations with United States.

{mosads}The Castro regime completed the releases over the weekend, an administration official told The Associated Press and Reuters. And the White House is expected to provide the list of freed dissidents to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have pressed the administration to name those freed under the deal.

The administration, which so far has withheld the names out of security concerns, drew criticism from Capitol Hill over the secrecy surrounding the deal, announced last month.

But White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday that the administration was “pleased with the progress” of the prisoner release.

“We actually welcome the significant and ongoing releases of the political prisoners by the Cuban government,” Schultz said, adding it was a “tangible sign” that the Castro regime was keeping its word on the diplomatic deal.

The release also should give bilateral talks slated for later this month in Havana greater momentum. Senior administration officials plan to travel to Cuba to discuss immigration issues, as well as the U.S. effort to normalize relations. Those discussions are expected to include hashing out logistical considerations surrounding the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in a letter last week to President Obama, said the U.S. should cancel those talks if the prisoner release was not completed.

“While I believe that the entirety of your new Cuba policy is overwhelmingly one-sided in the Castro regime’s favor and based on the flawed premise that giving it more legitimacy and money will result in a freer Cuban people, the least your Administration can do now is hold the regime accountable for fully freeing these 53 political prisoners as well as those who have been detained in recent weeks,” Rubio said.

Under the deal, the administration agreed to loosen trade and travel restrictions and re-establish diplomatic ties with Havana for the first time in more than 50 years, as well as release three individuals convicted of spying on behalf of Cuba. In addition to the political prisoners, Havana released Alan Gross, a U.S. aid worker who had been jailed after attempting to establish Internet service on the island, as well as a Cuban who was jailed for spying for the U.S.

The State Department said last week that it did not have a timeline for when the Commerce and Treasury departments would release new guidelines for Americans hoping to travel or do business with Cuba but said the administration was not waiting on the full release of the prisoners to do so.