Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer leaves island for US exile after imprisonment

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Havana (AP) — Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer left the island Monday for exile in the U.S. at the request of the U.S. government, Cuban and U.S. authorities confirmed.

The director of bilateral relations for the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Alejandro García, told The Associated Press that Ferrer, 55, departed before noon from his hometown Santiago in eastern Cuba en route to Florida.

“He leaves the country due to a request made by the U.S. government to the Cuban government, which (Ferrer) is in agreement with,” García said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Ferrer's arrival on Monday “after suffering years of abuse, torture, and threats to his life in Cuba,” he said in a statement.

Ferrer gained international acclaim as part of a group of 75 opposition figures imprisoned and put on trial in 2003. Negotiations with the Catholic Church, Spain and then-president Raúl Castro led to their freedom between 2010 and 2011 — on the condition of leaving the island.

Ferrer refused and instead founded the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a leading political opposition organization not legally recognized by the government.

When thousands took to the streets in 2021 to protest food shortages and power outages and call for the end of the Communist government, he was imprisoned once again even though he was already on house arrest at the time.

The U.S. had already publicly called for Ferrer's release and Amnesty International included him in a list of a half-dozen prisoners of conscience. In his statement Monday, Rubio called for the release of another “700 unjustly detained political prisoners.”

Ferrer was released in January as part of negotiations with Cuba and the Catholic Church to free more than 500 prisoners. But authorities imprisoned him again in April after accusing him of failing to comply with the terms of his release.

In early October, Ferrer's family began to circulate a letter in which he accepted his exile. The terms of the agreement to leave the island are unknown, but the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that he traveled with “members of his family.”

The Council for Democratic Transition, an opposition group that Ferrer belongs to, called his departure a “profoundly human relief” after harassment against him and his family following the letter.

Cuba has repeatedly accused Ferrer and other opposition leaders of being financed by the U.S. government as it continues its policy of economic sanctions against the island to push for regime change.

The terms of Ferrer's imprisonment were modified so that his departure was in line with Cuban law and the constitution, according to Ana Hernández of the Attorney General’s Office. She did not specify how the terms were modified or details of the negotiations.

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