Madrid/The Cuban opposition Jose Daniel Ferrercurrently in exile in Miami, has been awarded the 2025 Carlos Alberto Montaner Prize, awarded by the InterAmerican Institute for Democracy (IID) to people who stand out for their defense of freedom, democracy and human rights in Latin America.
This recognition underlines the relevance of Ferrer’s political work within Cuban dissidents, and symbolizes international support for those who fight against authoritarianism from the diaspora.
“I am honored by the InterAmerican Institute for Democracy by awarding me the 2025 Carlos Alberto Montaner Prize. My commitment to Freedom and Democracy was, is and will always be solid. It is a priority in my life, that of my family and brothers in struggle,” the opponent wrote on social networks.
This recognition highlights the relevance of Ferrer’s political work within Cuban dissidents.
The award has its roots in 2010, when it began to be awarded under the name Francisco de Miranda. In 2023 it was renamed to honor the Cuban intellectual who presided over the IID and who died that year. Montaner represented a tradition of liberal criticism, exiled, opposed to the official discourse of the Cuban regime.
Previously recognized figures include Armando Valladares, Jennie Lincoln, Luis Almagro, María Corina Machado, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Jorge Lanata, among others.
Ferrer was part of the group of 75 dissidents imprisoned during the Black Spring of 2003, with a sentence of 25 years in prison. In 2011 he was released from prison and chose to stay in Cuba to continue his work in the internal opposition. Over time, his leadership in the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) made him one of the most visible symbols of citizens organized for peaceful changes.
For years he has been detained, harassed, beaten and subjected to judicial proceedings under trumped-up charges such as “public disorder” or “attack”. Despite this, he maintained networks inside and outside the Island that served to sustain criticism of the regime from different fronts.
The opponent was imprisoned again in 2021, when he tried to participate in the anti-government marches of July 11. Sentenced to a four-year prison sentence, Ferrer was released in January 2025 as part of the group of more than 500 people who left Cuban prisons with conditional release as a result of what the Government called a “gesture” with Pope Francis, who had declared this year as Jubilee. In reality, it was an agreement with the United States triangulated by the Vatican and in which Washington committed, in exchange, to removing Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
In October 2025, Ferrer left Cuba in what was defined as forced exile.
A week after this event occurred, Donald Trump assumed the presidency and included the Havana regime again on the list on the same day of the inauguration. In April, after the death of Pope Francis, Ferrer returned to prison due to a decision by the Supreme Court, which considered that he had violated the terms of his parole.
In October 2025, Ferrer left Cuba in what was defined as a forced exileafter a request from the US Government and formal acceptance by the opponent. Upon landing in Miami, he was received with honors and was awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom for his lifetime achievement.
His exile, although painful for many within the dissidence that insists on internal struggle, gives him a safer platform to make the Cuban crisis visible and articulate regional alliances with democratic institutions.
The award to Ferrer not only recognizes his past of personal sacrifice, but also constitutes a reaffirmation of the political value of the Cuban exile. The award “embodies the spirit of resistance to authoritarianism, the defense of the truth and the hope of a free and democratic Cuba.”
Ferrer’s election in 2025 picks up the thread that unites his work with Montaner’s intellectual memory: two generations of dissidents who, from within or without, insisted that the future Cuba must rest on rights, pluralism and freedom of expression.
