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By Nelson Acosta
HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuban dissident and human rights activist Jose Daniel Ferrer told Reuters on Thursday he had been released from jail and was at home, part of a broader plan negotiated with the Vatican to gradually free upwards of 500 prisoners.
The Cuban government began liberating a small number of prisoners on Wednesday, following talks with the Catholic Church that prompted U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to announce it would significantly loosen sanctions on the crisis-racked nation.
Biden's announcement on Cuba came just days before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. Trump's pick to head the State Department, Senator Marco Rubio, was critical of the decision to relax sanctions on Cuba.
Many, if not all, of the prisoners released this week were arrested in association with unprecedented anti-government protests that took place in July 2021, the largest protests since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
The U.S., Europe and human rights groups had criticized Cuba's response to the protests as repressive and heavy-handed.
Ferrer is the highest-profile prisoner and dissident to be released thus far.
"I am at home, in fair health, but with the courage to continue fighting for the freedom of Cuba," Ferrer told Reuters in a brief phone conversation.
Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), once the communist-run country's largest and most active opposition group, was arrested in October 2019 on charges of abducting and assaulting a man. He was sentenced to four years in jail but served the majority under house arrest.
At the time, Cuba called Ferrer a U.S.-financed dissident but said he was not arrested for his political views. Critics said Cuba's government had concocted the accusations in order to arrest and silence Ferrer.
The long-time dissident was picked up again by police on July 11, 2021, as he tried to join a protest in Santiago de Cuba, the Caribbean island nation's second largest city, violating the terms of his house arrest. He was charged with public disorder and returned to prison.
Ferrer's anti-government activism dates back decades.
He was one of 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 during a nationwide crackdown known as the Black Spring. He was released on parole in 2011.
Cuba has said it will continue to gradually release prisoners from its jails in the coming days and weeks.
(Reporting by Nelson Acosta; editing by Dave Sherwood and Leslie Adler)
