The Cuban government on Thursday said it would release 2,010 inmates from its prisons in a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture,” announcing a sweeping pardon as the Trump administration continues its pressure campaign to isolate the island through a de facto oil blockade.
The announcement, reported in the state-run newspaper Granma, marks one of the largest prisoner releases in the country in recent years. The government said it chose whom to pardon based on the crimes committed, “their good conduct in prison, the fact that they had served a significant portion of their sentence, and their state of health,” according to Granma.
