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• Cuba prisoner of Hialeah freed after six years

  Cuba prisoner of Hialeah freed after six years

  Cuba has freed a Cuban-American convicted of people smuggling after an incident in 2006 in which another smuggler was shot to death by Cuban security forces and a third was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

  Julio Rafael Mesa Farinas said he was taken Wednesday to the Havana airport directly from the same hospital prison wing where U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross is being held, and flew to Miami with the assistance of U.S. diplomats in Havana. He arrived in Florida on Wednesday.

  Gross got into a shouting match with a State Security official after his 15-year prison sentence was upheld on appeal, accusing him of lying by promising “benefits like a reduction in sentence” if he cooperated with the legal process, Mesa said.

• Jailed Cuban dissident Wilman Villar reportedly near death

  Jailed Cuban dissident Wilman Villar reportedly near death

  A Cuban political prisoner is in a coma and near death from pneumonia he picked up when he refused to wear a prison uniform and went on a hunger strike, his wife said Monday.

• Jailed Cuban dissident reported near death

  Jailed Cuban dissident reported near death

  Wilman Villar is in a coma after hunger strike and contracting pneumonia

• World reacts to death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza

  World reacts to death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza

  The United States and Europe called on Cuba to honor the human rights of its citizens after the death Thursday of dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza.

• Venezuelan activists push for prisoners’ release

  Venezuelan activists push for prisoners’ release

  Venezuelan human rights groups are hoping to enlist opposition politicians in their effort to spring dozens of people they consider political prisoners. President Hugo Chávez has denied that the government is jailing opponents.