Cuba frees prominent dissident leader José Daniel Ferrer as part of a deal cut with the US

Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald on Jan 16, 2025

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Cuban authorities on Thursday released prominent opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, who had been in prison since 2021, as part of a deal cut with the Biden administration and the Vatican.

Cuban activist Rosa María Payá confirmed his release to the Miami Herald. Payá said she spoke to Ferrer at his home in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second-largest city.

Payá said Ferrer refused to sign a document with several conditions for his release but was freed anyway. He told her he had been incommunicado for long periods.

Ferrer told her he was concerned about the fate of other opposition members who were still imprisoned and that the Cuban government was playing both the Biden administration and the Vatican by using the prisoners to get political concessions.

Ferrer, the leader of the dissident organization Patriotic Union of Cuba, had previously been in prison because of his political opposition to the communist government and was one of the most prominent prisoners the Cuban government had been holding as a political bargain chip.

On Tuesday, the White House said it had taken Cuba off the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and lifted sanctions on Cuban military companies to facilitate a deal brokered by the Vatican with the Cuban government to release political prisoners.

The Cuban government said it was going to release 553 prisoners as a gesture to Pope Francis.