Cuba releases intelligence officer accused of spying 27 years after sentence
April 25 (UPI) -- Ernesto Borges Perez, a former Cuban counterintelligence officer, is out of prison after serving 27 years in Havana.
The 59-year-old Borges, who was convicted of spying for the United States, was released Thursday from the high-security Combinado del Este prison.
Borges, trained by the Soviet Union's KGB, was arrested in July 1998 for attempting to pass the identities of 26 Cuban intelligence members about to infiltrate the United States and Europe.
Although he didn't carry out the mission, he was initially sentenced to death. It was later commuted to 30 years in prison.
Borges had been eligible for parole years ago but was denied. He staffed hunger strikes and developed several health ailments, including untreated cataracts in his eyes.
For more than 20 years, Borges said he was held in inhumane conditions in dark, unventilated cells, without adequate access to medical care and without physical contact with his daughter.
"I wish they would listen to the people of Cuba," Borges said in a call with Marti Noticias, a U.S.-government-funded news outlet. "I wish God would touch their hearts, and I wish to have a transition process that would be as painless as possible."
Borges' release was celebrated by his family, Cuban opponents and members of the exile community, including more than 1.2 million in the Miami area.
Cuban activist Carolina Barrero said it was "a triumph of resistance against oppression."
She ended her message on X in Spanish: "To Ernesto Borges and his family, I extend my respect and my embrace. May their freedom be a prelude to a #FreeCuba."
Barrero said Borges' situation is a reminder "to act with truth and courage in the face of the tyranny that uses and despises them, just like the rest of the Cubans, for the benefit of the Castro family."
Fidel Castro ruled in Cuba from 1955 to 2008, and died on Nov. 25, 2016.
His brother, Raul, succeeded him as president and left power in 2018.
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