The United States government has issued a two-week ultimatum to Cuba demanding the release of prominent political prisoners, including visual artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and rapper Maykel Osorbo, both jailed for five years. The demand was delivered during a secret meeting on 10 April in Havana — the first visit by a US delegation to the island since the Obama-era diplomatic thaw a decade ago — where State Department officials called the releases a necessary "gesture of good faith," while also raising broader proposals on internet access via Starlink satellites, easing the six-decade US trade embargo, and eventual free elections. Washington has signalled that Cuba's government faces a narrow window to act before economic conditions worsen further, with a State Department spokesperson affirming that President Trump remains committed to securing the freedom of all of Cuba's more than one thousand political prisoners.