Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer has arrived in Miami following his release from a Cuban prison.
Shortly after arriving in the United States, pro-democracy activists demanded the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in Cuba.
Earlier this month the 55-year-old revealed he had made the “difficult decision” to go into exile after being told his wife could also be jailed and his son could be sent to a young offenders’ institution.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Prime Minister Ferrer and his family left Cuba at an “official request” from the U.S. government and that Prime Minister Ferrer had “expressly accepted.”
As coordinator of the Cuban Patriotic Union, an umbrella group of anti-establishment organizations, Ferrer has been one of the most outspoken critics of Cuba’s communist government’s ban on political opposition.
Like many Cuban dissidents, Mr. Ferrer has been in and out of prison.
He was briefly released in January following a Vatican deal negotiated by then-U.S. President Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
But Mr. Ferrer was arrested again three months later, during which time he continued to criticize the Cuban government for violating the terms of his parole.
“The dictatorship’s cruelty against me knew no bounds,” the dissident said after his arrest again.
He accused prison authorities of humiliating and torturing him.
Fellow dissidents described his departure from Cuba as “forced exile.”
“Ferrer’s leadership and tireless advocacy for the Cuban people were a threat to the regime that repeatedly imprisoned and tortured him,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a statement.
“We are glad that Ferrer is now free from the regime’s repression,” Rubio added.
He also called on the international community to “join us in holding the Cuban regime accountable for its abuses” and to demand the release of “more than 700 unjustly detained political prisoners” held on the communist-run island.
With additional reporting from the BBC monitoring team in Miami.
