After 26 days without news of José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), his wife Nelva Ismarays Ortega Tamayo presented this Thursday an appeal for habeas corpus before the Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba.
“The authorities of the Castro-Canel government keep him forcibly disappeared,” said Ortega Tamayo in a video posted on YouTubeand added that he demands to know if he is alive, because he does not know what has happened in recent days.
On June 18, Ana Belkis Ferrer, sister of the opponent, denounced on social networks that she had not been able to speak to Ferrer for two weeks, imprisoned in the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba. “Two weeks without taking him out for the measly five minute phone call,” she said, adding that he would be declared missing if the lack of information continued.
“It’s a mockery, it’s incredible that they don’t let me see my husband, that they don’t let me listen to him through a phone call, that there are no conjugal visits”
Since then, the family has demanded Ferrer’s “life certificate” from the authorities.
Ortega Tamayo recounts that on June 24, she visited the prison once again asking for news of her husband, and two soldiers, one identified as Colonel Pineda and the other as Agent José, showed her a video of the opposition allegedly recorded that same day. “It’s a mockery, it’s incredible that they don’t let me see my husband, that they don’t let me listen to him through a phone call, that there are no conjugal visits or that there are no family visits, supposedly because of the position my husband has taken, according to them, and yet show me a video, as if my husband were on television.
Two days earlier, Ana Belkis Ferrer, who manages the opponent’s social networks, had stated on Twitter that she received information that several prisoners were sick with diarrhea in the Mar Verde prison and “dehydrated.” The source who regularly provides information to the family also stated that she had not seen the opponent for days, not even from afar, since she is not allowed to approach him.
The family asserts that only with a visit or with one of the 20-minute calls to speak with the Unpacu leader can they prove that he is fine.
José Daniel Ferrer García expressed his opinion regarding the Summit of the Americas on June 10 in a telephone call, when he made his last public intervention
José Daniel Ferrer García expressed his opinion regarding the Summit of the Americas on June 10 in a telephone call, when he made his last public intervention.
The opponent was arrested on July 11 last year, before he could participate in the protests that day. At that time, the four-year prison sentence to which he was sentenced in 2020 had been replaced by house arrest, but after trying to participate in the demonstrations the measure was revoked.
In December of last year, his sister denounced that the opponent is increasingly subjected to “physical and psychological torture.” Prisoners Defenders accused the Cuban regime of “killing José Daniel Ferrer” with “sonic attacks” and psychoactive drugs. On that occasion they added that the Unpacu coordinator does not receive medical attention and they kept him locked up between four walls, without seeing the sun.
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