Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta (born 1 September 1950,

Morón, Cuba Morón is a city and a municipality in Ciego de Ávila Province in central Cuba. It is one of ten municipalities in the province, and is the second in importance and the oldest. Morón is the closest city to the tourist resorts on Cayo Coco an ...

) is an economist, librarian, and

Varela project The Varela Project ( es, Proyecto Varela) is a project that was started in 1998 by Oswaldo Payá of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and named after Felix Varela, a Cuban religious leader. Many members were imprisoned during the Black Spr ...

coordinator. He published reports about problems of the transport facilities, the food supply and the housing shortage. He was arrested on 19 March 2003, during the Black Spring, a general crackdown on opposition activists. On 3 April, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

declared him a prisoner of conscience. In 2007, International Society for Human Rights reported that he was in an acutely critical condition, having lost 60% of his former weight. Villarreal was released on 13 July 2010 following an agreement between

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and the government of Spain. He then resettled in La Rioja, Spain.

References

Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Cuba Cuban democracy activists Cuban dissidents Cuban emigrants to Spain Living people 1950 births Cuban prisoners and detainees Cuban exiles Black Spring detainees {{economist-stub