Why is Cuba releasing 52 political prisoners?

The dramatic decision by Havana to release 52 political prisoners – a third of all those currently held – has raised expectations that a reciprocal move by the US could begin to more quickly improve relations between the US and Cuba.

The announcement was made Wednesday, after a meeting between Cuban President Raul Castro, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Havana Jaime Ortega, and Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. It is the largest single release of political prisoners since 1998, when a visit by Pope John Paul II prompted a large-scale prisoner release.

According to a statement on the website of the Archdiocese of Havana, five of the prisoners will be released in the coming hours and sent to Spain. Six will be moved immediately to prisons closer to their homes. Those remaining are to be freed within the following three to four months.

"This opens a new era in Cuba with hope of putting aside differences once and for all on matters of prisoners," the Spanish Embassy said in a released statement.

But William LeoGrande, Cuba expert at American University in Washington, says that the deal on its own will have more significance for Cuban-European relations than the US, which has listed Cuba´s human rights record at the center of its demands before relations can be normalized.

“In some ways you might see this as Cuba testing the sincerity of the US, doing something dramatic that the US demanded, to see if the US responds positively,” he says.

Other than the easing of US travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban Americans, little has changed in the bilateral relationship between the US, which has implemented an embargo for nearly 50 years against Cuba, since Barack Obama and Raul Castro became heads of their respective nations. Mr. LeoGrande says Obama could respond to the prisoner release by easing rules for medical exchanges or issue more commercial licensing in areas of mutual cooperation.

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