Yesterday, the Castro dictatorship in Cuba finally released opposition leader and peaceful human rights activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antúnez" after four days in a Cuban jail. Antúnez was arrested this past Saturday in retaliation for testimony he presented earlier in the week before a U.S. Senate hearing on repression in Cuba. During his detainment, the dissident was brutally beaten by State Security agents until losing consciousness.

Juan Carlos Chavez in the Miami Herald:

Cuban opposition leader Jorge Luis García Pérez released by police

An opposition leader in Cuba who had been arrested and beaten was let go.

Cuban opposition leader Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antúnez, was released by police on Wednesday after being detained last Saturday in a violent incident at his city of birth, Placetas, in Villa Clara province.

“My first words are to express my thanks to all those persons of good will who, somehow or other, decidedly contributed to my release,” said Antúnez in a statement made available by the Miami-based Directorio Democrático Cubano (Cuban Democratic Board).

On Saturday, Antúnez was arrested, beaten and sprayed with pepper gas in a police jail cell.

The domestic opposition movement and human rights activists had consistently denounced his detention.

Last Thursday, Antúnez participated in a teleconference before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee dealing with the domestic situation in Cuba and the recent acts of harassment against the peaceful opposition.

The U.S. government had demanded Antúnez’s immediate and unconditional release. At a recent press conference in Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland deplored the oppositionist’s arrest.

Criticism has become strongest because Raúl Castro’s government seems to have activated a campaign to block the opposition’s plans to honor political prisoners on the occasion of Fathers’ Day, next Sunday.

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