Recently released dissidents Haydee Gallardo (L) and Sonia Garro hold the Cuban national flag during a march in Havana January 11, 2015. Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior U.S. officials said, a major step toward d?tente wi
Recently released dissidents Haydee Gallardo (L) and Sonia Garro hold the Cuban national flag during a march in Havana January 11, 2015. Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior U.S. officials said, a major step toward d?tente with Washington. The release of the remaining prisoners sets a positive tone for historic talks next week aimed at normalizing relations after decades of hostility, the officials said. To match Exclusive USA-CUBA/PRISONERS REUTERS/Stringer REUTERS/Stringer

The White House on Monday announced Cuba has released all 53 political prisoners as part of negotiations that led to the historic December 17 announcement declaring the normalisation of ties between the two countries after decades of hostility since 1961.

Cuba, according to the U.S. State Department, had actually released a small number of prisoners in the weeks and months prior to the December announcement. The remainder to complete the 53 were just released in recent days.

The identities of the prisoners were not given. But copy of the list obtained by Reuters showed they included members of prominent Cuba protest groups, including the Ladies in White. Brothers Bianco Vargas Martín and Diango Vargas Martín, members of the Patriotic Union, were among those on the release list. Arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 4 years in prison because of public disorder charges, they were designated by Amnesty International as "prisoners of conscience." Haydee Gallardo, a member of Ladies in White, and her husband, Angel Figueredo, arrested last year, were also included in the list.

But Cuba's largest dissident group, the Patriotic Union of Cuba, said on Monday it believed there are peaceful political activists, about 10 people, who remained in jail. Berta Soler, head of the Ladies in White group, said they believed only 41 had been released. "We really don't know who these 53 freed people are," Soler told the AFP. "Where are the other 12?"

The U.S. came up with the list of the names of the prisoners from information provided by dissident activists and international human rights groups. It narrowed down the list and forwarded it to Cuba. Reuters said Cuba had agreed to all but a handful of the names. The final list that included the 53 was agreed eventually finalised in July.

Marie Harf, U.S. State Department spokeswoman, told reporters a small number of people in the final list were released in the summer and fall. The rest were released before Dec. 17. "In the period since then ... the Cuban government has released all 53 persons whose names were shared by the U.S. government," Harf said. She added Washington is pleased that Havana followed through on its commitment.