A leading Cuban dissident and activist has been released from prison as part of a broader prisoner release agreement between the Cuban government and the United States.
Jose Daniel Ferrer spent more than three years in prison after the anti-government protests that swept through the communist-ruled island in 2021.
Under the agreement brokered by the Catholic Church, outgoing US President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism just days before the end of his term.
In return, Cuba said it would release 553 people, many of whom were detained during the anti-government protests.
The island the release of the first of hundreds of prisoners began on Wednesday, freeing about 20 people, according to local NGOs.
Ferrer is one of the most famous names among Cuban dissidents and pro-democracy activists. The 54-year-old leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), the country's opposition group, was arrested and charged with public disorder following the 2021 protests.
“I am at home, in good health, but I have the courage to continue fighting for the freedom of Cuba,” Ferrer told Reuters by telephone.
Many of the prisoners released this week were arrested in connection with the 2021 protests, during which citizens demanded that the Cuban government do more to ease widespread food shortages and reduce spiraling 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 pick for secretary of state, criticized the decision to ease sanctions on Cuba, hinting that it could be reversed.
Speaking at his Senate nomination hearing on Wednesday, Rubio said, referring to some of the sanctions against Cuba that the Biden administration lifted on Tuesday, that “the new administration is not bound by that decision.”
Earlier, Trump's pick for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Fox News that “everything (the Biden administration) is doing right now, we can do it, and nobody should be under any illusions about a change in Cuba Politics'.
The Cuban government says designating the island as a state sponsor of terrorism is deeply unfair and is intended to harm its economy by making it impossible for Cuba to access international bank credit.