MIAMI, United States. – Cuban opposition leader and political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer declared a hunger strike in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, according to reported this Thursday his sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer García. The announcement comes after a family visit that, despite being authorized after 21 months of refusals, took place in deplorable conditions.
“On the afternoon of this Thursday, December 5, 2024, [la] wife and two children of José Daniel Ferrer went to [la] prison Mar Verde thinking [que] They would have a family visit. However, it was another moment of martyrdom, anguish and suffering,” said Ana Belkis Ferrer García.
According to their testimony, the appointment was allowed at 5:00 pm, in the middle of the darkness, with mosquitoes and with the authorities’ refusal to accept almost all the food that the family tried to deliver.
The source also reported that, when confined with common prisoners, the prison authorities require Ferrer to comply with the same regulations, which includes the prohibition of receiving water in bottles. This situation would have forced him to start the hunger strike. Previously, the opponent had already rejected the prison food, suspecting that it was being adulterated: “In June 2022, José Daniel Ferrer noticed that they were providing him with certain substances in the scarce and poorly prepared prison food.”
URGENT!
A HUNGER STRIKE IS DECLARED #SOSFerrer.I am Ana Belkis Ferrer Garcia
On the afternoon of this Thursday, December 5, 2024, wife and two children of #SOSFerrer They headed to Mar Verde prison thinking they would have the family visit in the best possible way, then… pic.twitter.com/nIzLetboNR
— José Daniel Ferrer (@jdanielferrer) December 6, 2024
Ana Belkis also indicated that “on November 18, José Daniel was handcuffed and brutally beaten by six hitmen armed with sharp objects,” which caused bleeding wounds for two days. Subsequently, he was forcibly admitted to “the little hospital” of the Boniato prison, where inmates with tuberculosis and chronic scabies were held.
“We thought that the dictatorship had given in a little and unfortunately that is not the case, rather they continue to increase their macabre plans,” denounced Ana Belkis Ferrer García. He also reported that an agent of the Cuban regime threatened to imprison Ferrer’s daughter, Fátima Victoria, 20, and take away custody of her youngest son, Daniel José, six years old.
Earlier this month, José Daniel Ferrer himself confirmed in a call to his family that he had been the victim of a brutal beating on November 18.
Relatives, activists and Cuban organizations demanded proof of life of the opposition leader and political prisoner after being urgently hospitalized due to the beatings received in the Mar Verde prison.
A source who managed to see Ferrer in the hospital at the Boniato prison in Santiago described him as “very thin, brutally beaten and with a wound on his face.”
Likewise, he said that the authorities of the Cuban regime limited access to the hospital to prevent other people from being able to see him and report his condition.
Ferrer has been detained since July 11, 2021 for trying to access the place where the massive protests that day were taking place in their province. A month later, a four-year prison sentence that he had been serving since 2020 in house confinement was revoked.
