SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The family of the national coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) José Daniel Ferrer García continues without being able to see him in his political prison in the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba. One more time, Nelva Ismaray Ortegawife of the opponent, asks for proof of life.
Last Friday, October 4, Ferrer’s wife and children were again denied the right to see him and were only allowed allowed enter the bag with food and hygiene products, according to Ortega’s testimony, in an audio sent to the editorial office of CubaNet.
“It has not been enough for them to steal his freedom since his unjust, arbitrary, violent detention on July 11, 2021 to prevent him from joining and participating in the massive protests that took place throughout the island for liberation, for freedom and in against the dictatorial regime of Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel,” denounced Ortega.
The doctor and wife of activist He recalled that Ferrer is kept in “inhuman, cruel, deplorable and degrading conditions, being a victim of abuse and violence, both physical and psychological, as well as defamation before the regime’s official media without giving him the right to defend himself.”
In prison, the UNPACU leader does not have access to decent food and hydrates himself with non-potable water that is barely enough for him. He also does not have medical or dental care and his companions are mosquitoes and other vectors.
Nelva Ismaray Ortega revealed that in addition to the health problems acquired in confinement, severe pain in the right arm has been added, indicating a tear in the triceps. This prevents him from writing well and causes him pain, Archbishop Monsignor Dionisio told the family during his visit in September.
The agony of the family
Since the last visit to which his family had access, on March 7, 2023, only on five occasions have the repressors attested to his life.
The little five-year-old son, Daniel José, only managed to see him on June 22, 2023 and this has had an impact on the child’s behavior and his school performance.
“At school he is sad, unfocused after the refusals at each visit, even though he is very intelligent, but it has also had an impact on his health,” he alleged.
According to him, the little boy wet the bed again after he saw several jailers beating his father. “Not only did he see this henchman, but also others beating his father, among them the second repressor of confrontation of the political police, the one who calls himself Mayor Julio Fonseca, known by the abuser, for being an abuser and beater of women of peaceful political opposition.
“We request and ask for international solidarity from all supportive friends, organizations, parliaments, everyone to save valuable and precious lives of so many brave Cubans who are in danger in their lives, especially that of my husband, who at this moment is the most “He is suffering firsthand the cruelty of the Castro-communist prison,” he concluded.
Ferrer’s unjust prison
The activist has been detained since July 11, 2021 for trying to access the place where the protests were taking place in his province; A month later, a four-year prison sentence that he had been serving since 2020 in house confinement was revoked. This constitutes his third imprisonment for political reasons.
In the 2020 case, he was convicted along with Fernando González Vaillant and Roilán Zárraga Ferrer, who “are already past their time, and are still imprisoned,” Ferrer assured Ortega.
In 2003, José Daniel Ferrer was arrested during Cuba’s Black Spring. At that time he directed the Christian Liberation Movement and the Campaign in favor of the Varela Project in the eastern provinces. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, after his death sentence was commuted. He was imprisoned for eight years for refusing exile. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
The ten years following his release he did not cease his opposition activism: he founded the UNPACU, and presides over the People’s Party and the Council for the Democratic Transition of Cuba.
