Cuba released the first prisoners after the agreement

Cuba has begun freeing the first of hundreds of prisoners it agreed to free under an agreement with the United States.

In a deal brokered by the Catholic Church, President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism just days before his term ends.

In turn, the Cuban government said it would release 553 people, many of whom were detained during the anti-government protests that swept the communist-ruled island in 2021.

While Havana has cautiously welcomed the deal, there are doubts about how long it will last after Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, hinted it could be scrapped.

Speaking at a Senate nomination hearing on Wednesday, Rubio said, referring to some of the sanctions on Cuba that the Biden administration lifted on Tuesday, that “the new administration is not bound by that decision.”

Earlier, Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said on Fox News that “everything they (the Biden administration) are doing now, we can undo, and nobody should be under any illusions in terms of changing the Cuba policy.” “.

Despite doubts expressed by representatives of the Trump administration, Cuba released about 20 prisoners on Wednesday, according to local non-governmental organizations.

One of those freed was 53-year-old Donaida Pérez Paseira, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking part in the 2021 anti-government protests in which citizens demanded the Cuban government do more to ease widespread food shortages and lower spiraling prices.

In a video she posted on social media, Ms Pérez Paseira said the Cuban government had used her and her fellow inmates as a “bargaining coin” to get Cuba removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In the recording, she also stated that she would continue to “fight for the freedom of Cuba.”

Dariel Cruz Garcia was also among those released on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition after taking part in the 2021 protests.

He told Reuters that officials had announced he could serve the remainder of his sentence – which was reduced after his original sentence – at home.

“I escaped from hell to be with my family. I will behave myself so that I can move on,” he told the news agency.

The vice president of Cuba’s top court, Marisela Sosa, said on television that those freed had not been granted amnesty or pardoned, and warned that they could be rearrested if they violated the terms of their parole.

Hundreds more families are also waiting for news on whether their loved ones will be among the 553 people the government has agreed to release.

“They are desperate, everyone is very anxiously waiting for a call from their children,” Dariel Cruz Garcia’s mother told Reuters.