Cuba begins releasing prisoners following Biden announcements

(This Jan. 15 story has been corrected to clarify that the prisoner release followed Cuban government talks with the Catholic Church, in paragraph 1)

By Dave Sherwood and Mario Fuentes

LA GUINERA, Cuba (Reuters) - Cuba on Wednesday began releasing prisoners jailed following anti-government protests in 2021, making good on a deal with the Catholic Church that prompted the Biden administration to say it would loosen sanctions on the communist-run nation.

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday removed Cuba from a blacklist of nations that sponsor terrorism and rolled back a raft of sanctions implemented by Donald Trump during his first presidency that have contributed to the island's worst economic crisis in decades.

Hours after the U.S. announcement, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Cuba would "gradually" release 553 prisoners from its jails following talks with the Vatican.

In La Guinera, one of Havana's poorest outlying neighborhoods and a hotspot for protests in 2021, Dariel Cruz Garcia walked alongside his mother on Wednesday morning, embracing neighbors and old friends.

Cruz Garcia, 23, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition following the protests. The sentence, which had since been reduced, has not been waived or commuted, he said, but officers Tuesday evening told him he could serve the remainder of his sentence from home.

"There was tremendous intrigue at the jail yesterday," he told Reuters after arriving back at his family house in La Guinera. "Everyone was talking about it and then they came to find me last night."

"I escaped from hell to be with my family. I'll behave myself so I can move on."

Cruz Garcia said several other prisoners who had been arrested following the 2021 protests and had been held with him had also been released.

Maricela Sosa, vice president of Cuba's highest court, said on Wednesday morning that those liberated would be monitored for good behavior and could again be jailed should they violate terms of their parole.

"This is neither an amnesty nor a pardon," Sosa said on state-run television.

In the July 2021 protests - the biggest since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution - thousands took to the streets in towns and cities across the island, many protesting shortages of food, medicine and electricity as COVID-19 cases soared.

Rights groups say at least 1,000 people were arrested after the demonstrations.

Cuba says those jailed committed crimes ranging from arson to vandalism and sedition.

NERVOUS ANTICIPATION

Human rights watchdogs said at least 15 prisoners had been released from jails as of mid-afternoon on Wednesday.

In La Guinera, anxious family members paced in dooryards and huddled in small groups, many discussing the release announcement.

Cruz Garcia's mother expressed relief over her son's release but began to cry as she listed neighbors whose status remained uncertain.

"They're desperate, all waiting with tremendous anxiety for a call from their children," she said.

Reuters spoke with four other family members in La Guinera still awaiting news of their loved ones, all detained following the 2021 protests.

Emilio Roman, 53, said he has three sons in jail, convicted of sedition and other crimes after shouting for freedom during the protests.

"These kids haven't done enough to deserve those long sentences," he said tearfully. "It's an abuse what the government has done."

Biden's actions - should they endure a review by incoming President-elect Trump and the U.S. Congress - would mark the most significant detente in U.S.-Cuba relations since the Obama era.

Trump, a harsh Cuba critic who designated the island a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021, has yet to personally comment on this week's developments.

But Marco Rubio, Trump's pick for Secretary of State, said on Wednesday during his confirmation hearing that the measures were not set in stone.

"Nothing that was agreed to is irreversible or binding on the new administration," he said.

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Mario Fuentes in La Guinera, editing by Christian Plumb and Rosalba O'Brien)