Cuban families celebrated outside a Havana-area prison on Friday after detainees were released in a large, government-described humanitarian move ahead of Holy Week, but opposition and human rights groups pressed for clarity on whether protesters and other political detainees were among those freed.
Katia Arias gathered with other families at the gates of a detention facility on the outskirts of Havana, waiting for her loved ones to walk out. When her son, 20-year-old Emilio Alejandro Leyva—detained for a robbery—was released with a small release document and bags, Arias hugged him and said she felt joy after years of difficulty.
“There is no denying that this was a very difficult time, but today God has given me so much joy,” Arias said, according to the Associated Press account from Havana. “Today, I feel so happy. This is how all mothers who will have their children released today should feel.”
The releases came a day after Cuba’s government said it would free 2,010 prisoners in “humanitarian gestures” ahead of Holy Week. The government’s announcement was quickly met with criticism, including from human rights groups, which said they had not seen evidence that those released included any of the 1,214 people they have registered as being imprisoned for political reasons.
Cuba’s government denies that it holds political prisoners, and the Associated Press reported that with very little information provided by the government, it was not immediately clear how many of those released on Friday were protesters. The AP said prisoners interviewed on Friday were not serving time for political charges, and that it was uncertain how many among the releases were protesters who are often charged with public disorder, contempt or terrorism.
Prisoners in the La Lima prison on the rural outskirts of Havana told the AP they were woken at 6 a.m. and heard their names called. Hours later, they were outside with loved ones waiting behind blue prison gates as families embraced freed detainees. The AP reported that sporadic protests have broken out in recent months as the island sinks into a deeper crisis, including an incident in March in which protesters burned the communist party headquarters in central Cuba and led to five arrests.
Opposition and rights groups said the lack of information about Friday’s releases fueled frustration, describing the move as a positive development for some families but falling short of real change. Manuel Cuesta Morúa, leader of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba, said the government presented the releases as humanitarian gestures toward prisoners rather than a release of political prisoners, a distinction he said was designed to avoid the impression that the state recognizes political imprisonment.
Cuesta Morúa and his organization demanded a government amnesty law and said that people previously freed are often placed under house arrest or live under conditions where they cannot speak freely. He and other groups also pointed to prior releases, including a March release of 51 people in which organizations monitoring prisons in Cuba said 22 had political motives in their cases.
In a statement, Justicia 11J said no partial release can be considered progress “as long as the criminalization of the exercise of fundamental rights persists,” arguing that releases do not amount to policy change when legal pressure on dissent remains.
The AP reported that the prisoner releases are occurring as U.S.-Cuban relations remain tense and the island faces severe shortages, including what the report described as an oil blockade imposed by the Trump administration. It said the administration has expressed its desire for regime change and for the release of those arrested for protesting.
The AP also noted that Cuba has periodically freed prisoners at key moments. It cited releases connected to talks involving the Vatican in January 2025 and said Cuba’s government described Friday’s release as its fifth since 2011, saying it had freed more than 11,000 people. Despite the uncertainty about who among Friday’s releases were protesters, the AP reported scenes of hope outside La Lima, including families embracing and friends greeting freed detainees on the street.
One man, Damián Fariñas, said in the AP report that he was heading out into the world after serving most of a two-year robbery sentence, describing the moment as freedom.
As families waited for more information, rights groups and opposition figures said the central question remained whether the Cuban government would provide the details needed to confirm that protesters and other political detainees were included—and whether any released prisoners would be allowed to live without continued punishment.