Cuba Pardons 2,010 Prisoners as Trump Eases One Oil Shipment but Vows More Pressure

Cuba’s government says it has pardoned and released 2,010 prisoners in what its U.S. embassy called a "humanitarian and sovereign gesture," the second such mass release this year, as the island reels from a U.S.-driven fuel crisis. The pardons, which exclude people convicted of various violent crimes and include women, older prisoners, youth, Cuban émigrés and foreign nationals, come after the Trump administration threatened hefty tariffs on any country shipping oil to Cuba, a move that largely halted deliveries for months. Earlier this week, however, the White House let a sanctioned Russian-flagged tanker unload more than 700,000 barrels of oil in Havana "for humanitarian reasons," while insisting future tanker decisions will be handled case by case and that overall Cuba policy has not changed. President Trump has publicly mused about "taking Cuba in some form" and said "Cuba’s going to be next," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled the U.S. is "working on" pushing major political and economic changes in Havana, even as Cuba’s leadership warns that any external aggressor will face "impregnable resistance." Rights groups note it is unclear whether any of Cuba’s roughly 1,200 documented political prisoners are among those freed, raising questions about whether the pardons are genuine reform or a pressure valve as Washington steps up coercive leverage on a struggling neighbor.