Leading Cuban dissident freed from prison

Cuba freed internationally renowned dissident writer Raul Rivero from prison today, the latest in a series of releases apparently aimed at cleaning up the island nation’s human rights record.

Rivero, among 75 dissidents rounded up in a massive crackdown in March 2003, had been jailed for 20 years on charges of working with the US government to undermine Fidel Castro’s communist regime.

Rivero and the other activists denied the charges.

“I don’t have any plans for the future,” he said after he arrived at his Havana home.

“I’m still confused.”

Rivero’s wife, Blanca Reyes, said her husband was released on a medical parole after undergoing a check-up at a Havana prison hospital for his emphysema and cysts on a kidney.

Rivero said his release and several others were ”a gesture by the government to lower the tensions a bit.”