A leading Cuban dissident and activist has been released from prison as part of a broader prisoner release agreement between the Cuban government and the United States.
Jose Daniel Ferrer spent more than three years in prison after anti-government protests swept the communist-ruled island in 2021.
Under an agreement brokered by the Catholic Church, outgoing US President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism just days before his term ends.
In return, Cuba said it would release 553 people, many of whom were detained during anti-government protests.
Island began to release the first of hundreds of prisoners on Wednesday, freeing about 20 people, according to local NGOs.
Ferrer is one of the most famous names among Cuban dissidents and pro-democracy activists. The 54-year-old leader of the Cuban Patriotic Union (Unpacu), the country’s opposition group, has been jailed and charged with public disorder following the 2021 protests.
“I am at home, I am in good health, but I have the courage to continue fighting for the freedom of Cuba,” Ferrer told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Many of the prisoners released this week were arrested as part of the 2021 protests, during which citizens demanded that the Cuban government do more to ease widespread food shortages and lower rising prices.
Biden’s move to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism came just days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for secretary of state, criticized the decision to ease sanctions on Cuba, hinting that they could be reversed.
Speaking at his Senate nomination hearing on Wednesday, Rubio, referring to some of the sanctions on Cuba lifted by the Biden administration on Tuesday, said that “the new administration is not bound by that decision.”
Earlier, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Fox News that “anything [the Biden administration] we’re doing right now, we can fight back, and nobody should be under any illusions in terms of changing Cuban policy.”
The Cuban government says the designation of the island as a state sponsor of terrorism is deeply unfair and is aimed at hurting the economy by denying Cuba access to international bank loans.
