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A Cuban dissident and opposition leader has been released from prison as part of a prisoner release agreement between the Cuban government and the United States.
Jose Daniel Ferrer spent more than three years in prison following anti-government protests on the communist-controlled island in 2021.
Under an agreement managed by the Catholic Church, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, removed Cuba from the list of countries that support terrorists just a few days before the end of Cuba.
In response, Cuba said it would release 553 people, most of whom were arrested during anti-government protests.
An island he began to free the first of hundreds of prisoners On Wednesday, they released about 20 people, according to local NGOs.
Ferrer is one of the most popular names among Cuban dissidents and pro-democracy activists. The 54-year-old leader of Cuba’s Patriotic Union (Unpacu), the country’s opposition group, was arrested and charged with sedition following the 2021 protests.
“I am at home, I am in good health, but I have the courage to continue to fight for the freedom of Cuba,” Ferrer told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Most of the prisoners released this week were arrested in connection with the 2021 protests, where citizens demanded that the Cuban government do more to alleviate food shortages and falling prices.
Biden’s move to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism came just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, has criticized the decision to ease sanctions on Cuba, saying it could be reversed.
Speaking at his Senate hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Rubio said about the additional sanctions on Cuba that the Biden administration left on Tuesday that “the new administration does not support that idea”.
Earlier, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Fox News that “any [the Biden administration] what we are doing right now, we can go back, and no one should be hypocritical about the change in Cuban policy”.
The Cuban government has said that the designation of the island as an area supporting terrorism is unjust and aimed at destroying its economy by making Cuba unable to access funds from international banks.
