Freshly released from prison after 8 years of captivity, Cuban dissident Librado Linares García vowed to return to the fight for democracy, human rights and freedom.
"Human rights are intrinsic to everyone and no government can either give them to us or take them away," Linares said in a telephone interview with EFE, from his home in Villa Clara.
Linares was one of the 52 prisoners covered by a deal reached for their release by the Catholic Church, the government of Spain and the Castro dictatorship.
However, Linares and about a dozen others spent several extra months in prison because of their refusal to accept forced exile as a condition of their release. The dictatorship finally relented and has been releasing those prisoners and allowing them to stay in Cuba, albeit again over an extended period of time.
Of course, because Linares, Oscar Biscet and a handful of others are remaining in Cuba, the dictatorship is reserving the right to return them to prison whenever it wants — a real concern considering their expressed interest in returning to their roles in the opposition.
Linares' release leaves two prisoners of conscience covered by the deal — José Daniel Ferrer García and Félix Navarro Rodríguez — still in jail.
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