Havana Cuba. — Last Tuesday, this digital newspaper published the statements made by Senator Marco Rubio in support of the prisoner of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García, as well as his relatives. “How long will the oppressive apparatus of the regime continue to be determined to repress and censor its opponents?” the legislator wondered.
With this, the permanent interest that US legislators of Cuban descent show in the affairs of their country of origin was once again revealed; his unwavering rejection of the communist dictatorship that keeps the island’s people oppressed. And this —it should be emphasized— regardless of the political party to which one or the other belongs. Examples of this are Marco Rubio himself and Bob Menéndez, the former a Republican and the latter a Democrat.
It seems to me very appropriate that the attention of prominent politicians like those (and of public opinion in general) is focused on the captives of conscience that Castroism maintains. More specifically, in people like José Daniel Ferrer himself; or like Felix Navarro.
We are talking about men who have spent decades fighting head-on against the Castro regime. And it is precisely because of this long-standing confrontation that they have maintained against communism in Cuba that I have had the opportunity to meet them, deal with them and carry out opposition actions together with them. And I have come to consider them my personal friends.
In the specific case of José Daniel, the interest that his situation has aroused this week is more than justified by podcast of courageous denunciation that his wife has made known, Dr. Nelva Ismarays Ortega Tamayo. These recordings have been motivated respectively by two different situations in which the profanity of the Castro regime has been revealed.
Complaint by Nelva Ismarays Ortega Tamayo, wife of José Daniel Ferrer
Last Friday I received and forwarded to my contacts the complaint filed by that lady on the occasion of the act perpetrated against her by the communist repressors. It is an action that has earned from the same lady the qualifications of “deceit”, “blackmail”, “falsehood”. The day before —Thursday the 11th— the doctor appeared at the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, to carry out what was supposed to be a matrimonial visit, which had been announced to her by telephone by one of the repressors who “attend” her.
On Thursday, after waiting outside the said prison since early in the morning, an officer told him “around noon” that “the visit would not take place.” Let us think not only of the vain illusion of seeing the loved one; it is also necessary to keep in mind the tremendous complication and the expenses involved, in today’s Cuba, the mere fact of transferring to a prison.
This action suffered by Dr. Ortega Tamayo has made me remember a page of the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which I have compared with the reality suffered by Nelva Ismarays. Despite all the monstrosity of the barbaric regime installed in the former Soviet Union by the tyrant who called himself by his criminal alias “Stalin”, it is necessary to recognize that, incredible as it may seem, by making the comparison, the Castro regime leads the way! to lose!
In one of his brilliant novels denouncing communism, Solzhenitsyn narrates the experience of the wife of a political prisoner, who was recognized on public transport by one of the prison officials. In fact, her husband was not included in the list of those who would receive visitors; therefore the woman had not been notified to that effect. But the bracket knew that, in the midst of the prevailing bureaucracy, if the woman showed up on the appointed day, she would be able to see her husband. For this reason, the agent approached the lady and discreetly, in a low voice, told her the day and time that she should report to the prison.
That happened, as the great Russian novelist tells us, in the great prison of peoples —happily disappeared— that was the Soviet Union. But in the Cuba of “Diazcanelista continuity” the opposite happens!: The wife of a prisoner of conscience is falsely announced that, after two months without hearing from her husband, she will be able to see him, but it is only with the deliberate purpose of making her miss the trip and making fun of her!
On Friday, May 12, Dr. Ortega Tamayo undertook another trip with her three-year-old son: In this case, to the rural area of Caney de las Mercedes, to see her ill 83-year-old grandmother. They brought him food and medicine. But also something no less important: the presence of loved ones on such an important date as Mother’s Day, which would be the first time that the old woman’s daughter (and Nelva’s mother) could not be with the old lady.
At three in the afternoon, Nelva and her baby were lowered in Dos Ríos, Palma Soriano. They were taken to a local police station, where they were forced to remain for “approximately five hours”. From there (and always in repressive vehicles) they were transferred to Santiago de Cuba. Once in this city, they tried to get him to sign a warning document for “disfiguring public decoration” (this is due to the “Patria y Vida” and “Down with Raúl” signs that the combative lady had painted in front of her house). . They were released “around 10:15” at night.
These realities, said like this, in technical language and as objective as possible (as befits a self-respecting journalist) cannot be compared to listening to podcasts. I urge my readers to do the latter. And to show solidarity with José Daniel and his wife, and demand the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners.
OPINION ARTICLE
The opinions expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the person who issues them and do not necessarily represent the opinion of CubaNet.
The post Ferrer case: the repression does not stop appeared first on CubaNet.
