Cuba's best-known dissident writer spoke at Miami Dade College, where he read from his poetry and called for dialogue to free political prisoners.

BY FRANCES ROBLES

Raúl Rivero is a poet who writes with the kind of sharp clarity that won prizes and got him thrown in jail.

The former Cuban dissident writes with a subtle anguish that hints to the years he spent ducking state security. He composes with love and a touch of comedy.

It's his jokes he keeps having to explain.

He didn't really mean to say he was awaiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's death. And that crack to a Spanish news agency about ''demonized'' Miami exiles? Out of context -- he meant Cubans here have been demonized by Castro.

''In Cuba, you can't express yourself,'' Rivero said, speaking in Spanish, at a news conference Thursday. ``You turn to humor.''

Rivero is an internationally acclaimed Cuban writer, jailed two years ago in a sudden crackdown by the Cuban government because he dared defy the system. Seventy-five government opponents, including 30 journalists, were given decades-long sentences.

TOLD TO LEAVE ISLAND

Rivero was one of the lucky 14 who were later released. His November 2004 liberation came with a bit of a wink and a nod -- leave the country and we'll leave you alone. He took off for Spain and published his most recent book of poems, Corazón sin furia (Heart Without Fury). Rivero now works as a columnist for Spain's El Mundo newspaper.

Miami Dade College's Florida Center for the Literary Arts invited Rivero for his first public appearance in South Florida. He read his works to a captive audience after two whirlwind days of stops on Calle Ocho, where he was honored with a proclamation from the likes of City Manager Joe Arriola and presented a pen by the Cuban American National Foundation's Jorge Mas Santos.

In a meeting with the media before his presentation, Rivero gave long and thoughtful answers peppered with witty one-liners.

UNITY IS 'STUPID'

''I don't believe in unity; it's stupid,'' he said. ``In Cuba, there's unity: 99.7 percent of the people vote for Fidel.''

Himself the beneficiary of negotiations with Castro -- the Spanish government secured his release -- Rivero encouraged the use of dialogue to free Cuban political prisoners.

''It would be selfish, stupid and miserable if I tell the governments to slam the door to dialogue,'' he said. ``I respect the people who feel that way, but for my own personal dignity, I cannot call for that door to be closed.''

Rivero criticized the Latin American governments that ignore the Cuban opposition, while the European Union works hard on their behalf.

''The first time I ever saw a computer with Internet was at an embassy,'' he said. "Czech.''

CRITICIZES NOSTALGIA

Other governments, ones much closer to Cuba's shores, turn their backs on the Cuban opposition so they can curry favor with leftist anti-American voters, he said. Many Latin Americans, he said, are still swept by the nostalgia of a revolution that allows for breezy cigar-filled visits to Havana where tourists can see happy workers and peaceful kids.

''That rented dream of theirs is our nightmare,'' he said. "Those combative anti-American groups go to Havana via American Airlines and have Plymouths and Fords waiting for them at the airport. . . . That anti-Americanism comes at the expense of the sacrifice, pain and bitterness of our country.''