Luis Milán Fernández (born 21 February 1970) is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n physician from

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

. In 2001, he and his wife, a dentist named Lisandra Lafitta Hernández, signed "Manifiesto 2001", which called for basic freedoms to be respected in Cuba. He was one of 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 as part of the crackdown known as the Black Spring. He was sentenced to thirteen years in prison, and

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 that it has more than ten million members a ...

recognized him as

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

. In 2005, Milán was transferred to a psychiatric ward despite having no reported psychological problems. According to Lafitta, he was confined with two or three mental patients, one of whom cut his own ear off during their confinement. In June 2007, the Internet news agency BosNewsLife reported that Milán's health was deteriorating as a result of his confinement. In July 2010, tripartite negotiations between Cuban President

Raúl Castro Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz ( ; ; born 3 June 1931) is a Cuban retired politician and general who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the One-par ...

Roman Catholic bishop In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an Holy orders in the Catholic Church, ordained Minister (Catholic Church), minister who holds the fullness of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teachin ...

Jaime Ortega, and Spanish Foreign Minister

Miguel Angel Moratinos --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disam ...

resulted in pardons being granted to the remaining 52 Black Spring prisoners on the condition that they go into exile in Spain. Milán was released from prison the following week, and he and his family departed for Spain. They resettled in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

, where Milán said that he would try to continue working as a physician.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milan Fernandez, Luis 1970 births Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Cuba Cuban dissidents Cuban physicians Living people Cuban prisoners and detainees Cuban emigrants to Spain Black Spring detainees