Darsi Ferrer released

Cuban dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer was released from police custody about four hours after he was arrested Tuesday morning, according to a story by independent journalist Jaime Leygonier, posted at Cuba Democracia y Vida.

It was a basic and crude act of harrassment and intimidation by officers with State Security, whom Ferrer dismissed as nothing more than "gorillas."

Read the story, which indicates a connection between Ferrer's arrest and Tuesday's Today show broadcast, here.

George of Real Cuba confirmed the link:

On Tuesday morning, Dr. Darsi Ferrer was arrested after he left his house in Havana and released several hours later.

His wife reported that Dr. Ferrer was taken to the police station located at Zapata and C streets around 9 AM, after he left his house.

Late tonight I spoke with Darsi in Cuba and he said that the reason for his arrest was that the police didn't want him on the street, while the Today Show was broadcasting live from Cuba and Matt Lauer was having fun listening to the Van Van and saying stupid things, among them, calling the US embargo a "blockade," exactly the way the Castro regime refers to it.

My conversation with Darsi was interrupted three times, the first time after he told me the reason for his arrest.

Lauer didn't even know when was it that Castro got sick and had to turn over the dictatorship to his brother. Talking about Elian Gonzalez with the Today Show staff in New York, Lauer said that "Elian sent a letter to Castro when he got ill two years ago." The truth is that Castro turned the dictatorship to his brother 11 months ago, on July 31 of last year and not two years ago.

Will Matt Lauer say anything about Castro's police arresting Dr. Ferrer because the Today Show was broadcasting live from Cuba? Don't count on it.