Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer has arrived in Miami after being freed from a Cuban prison.
Shortly after landing in the United States, the pro-democracy activist called for the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in Cuba.
Earlier this month, the 55-year-old revealed that he had taken the “difficult decision” to go into exile after being told his wife could also be jailed and their son sent to an institution for juvenile offenders.
In a statement, the Cuban foreign ministry said Mr Ferrer and his family had left the country following “a formal request” from the US government and insisted that Mr Ferrer had given his “explicit acceptance”.
As co-ordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba – an umbrella group of dissident organisations – Mr Ferrer has been one of the most outspoken critics of Cuba’s Communist government, which bans political opposition.
Like many Cuban dissidents, Mr Ferrer has been in and out of prison.
He had been released briefly in January following a deal negotiated by the Vatican under which then US President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, just days his term ended.
But Mr Ferrer was re-arrested after three months, during which he had continued to speak out against the Cuban government, which accused him of breaching the terms of his parole.
The dissident said that following his re-arrest “the cruelty of the dictatorship towards me has known no bounds”.
He has accused prison authorities of humiliating and torturing him.
Fellow dissidents have described his departure from Cuba as a “forced exile”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a statement that “Ferrer’s leadership and tireless advocacy for the Cuban people was a threat to the regime, which repeatedly imprisoned and tortured him”.
“We are glad that Ferrer is now free from the regime’s oppression,” 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 of 700 unjustly detained political prisoners” held on the Communist-run island.
With additional reporting by BBC Monitoring’s team in Miami.
