The El Nuevo Herald cartoonist who barricaded himself inside the newsroom Friday with a toy gun was released from jail late Monday after posting $7,500 -- the standard 10 percent of his $75,000 bond.

José Manuel Varela, who turned 51 Monday, left Turner Guilford Knight jail at 9:35 Monday night wearing blue scrubs. He hugged friends on hand to greet him, spoke briefly in Spanish and climbed into the passenger seat of a waiting black Jaguar.

''Today is my birthday,'' he said to reporters outside the jail. "I haven't had anything to eat in three days.''

On Friday, Varela barricaded himself inside the newsroom of El Nuevo Herald, sparking a tense 3 ½-hour standoff before surrendering peacefully.

On Saturday, Varela was assigned a public defender and ordered to undergo a competency examination. As a condition of his release, Varela was told he must stay away from the newspaper's Biscayne Bay building and the company's employees.

''I can't speak for him, but I noticed that he's really depressed,'' Varela's friend Francisco Marty said in Spanish from the jail's parking lot right after the cartoonist was driven away. ``He's depressed, that's all I can say.

"The next step is to go to the judge.''

Varela's next court appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 15 before Circuit Judge David H. Young.