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

Prominent Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer left the island on Monday for exile in the US at the request of the US government, Cuban and American authorities confirmed.

The director of bilateral relations for the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Alejandro Garcia, told 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 US government to the Cuban government, which [Ferrer] is in agreement with,” Garcia said.

US 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 Raul 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 organisation not legally recognised by the government.

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