Top US diplomat meets with Cuban dissident in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, a Cuban political dissident, in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, the State Department said.

At a closed-door meeting at the State Department, Rubio "expressed his admiration for Ferrer’s courage and resilience in the face of the Cuban regime’s oppression, threats to his life, and brutal treatment of him and his family," according to a statement.

Rubio reaffirmed the US commitment to supporting the Cuban people’s "pursuit of democracy, prosperity, and fundamental freedoms."

"He emphasized that advocacy by Jose Daniel Ferrer and other political dissidents like him remains critical to the island’s pro-democracy movement and pledged continued U.S. support for efforts to promote accountability for the Cuban regime’s human rights abuses," the statement read.

Ferrer Garcia, who has been imprisoned on multiple occasions, including for his involvement in the 2021 protests, left Cuba on Monday after a formal request from the US government.

The Cuban government emphasized that Ferrer’s release and subsequent exile to the US came after "an exhaustive evaluation by the prosecutor’s office of Ferrer Garcia’s legal situation" and was based on the specific circumstances of his case.