The leader of UNPACU also points out his “frustration at the disunity, sectarianism and lack of effectiveness of the opposition inside and outside Cuba”
14ymedio, Madrid, October 3, 2025 –The opponent José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), accepts his exile from Cuba. He has expressed this in a handwritten letter published by his family on their social networks and sent from the prison of Mar Verde, in Santiago de Cuba, where he has been since his parole was revoked, April, 29, after having been released for three months.
Before that date, when the “last assault” on his home occurred, Ferrer explains, he had already made up his mind. “This decision was taken for the safety of my family and because of the frustration that I felt when I came out of prison to confirm the disunity, sectarianism and lack of effectiveness of the opposition inside and outside Cuba in the struggle for freedom and the well-being of our homeland,” he says, referring to his months of release.
“For years I have been subjected to brutal beatings, torture, humiliation, death threats and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by henchmen and other instruments of the worst dictatorship that the American continent has known,” begins his letter. “All with the intention of forcing me to leave my country or to renounce the non-violent struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights and the well-being of my homeland.”
In the last few months that he has been in prison, “the brutality of the dictatorship against me has exceeded all limits”
In the last few months that he has been in prison, “the brutality of the dictatorship against me has exceeded all limits.” He lists “beatings, tortures, humiliations, threats and extreme conditions,” as well as “theft of my food and toiletries” and threats against his wife, Nelva Ortega, and her children. “All with the intention of forcing me to leave my homeland,” he says. “In the face of constant efforts by the political police to get me out of Cuba, I ended up agreeing to go into exile.”
However, he states, “since the procedures to achieve this end began, as always happens, the agents of the regime have been playing dirty: they continue with the plan of harassment, threats, humiliations, robberies and extreme conditions.” As an example, he mentions the pressure they exerted to have his marriage with Nelva take place on the “birth day of the deceased dictator,” August 13, and the “videos and recordings” that Ferrer claims they took “with the intention of producing publications that call into question our commitment to the struggle for freedom in Cuba.”
He also states that they tried to compel him to make statements and ask the Catholic Church to mediate between Havana and Washington, a dialogue, he defines, “leading to the shameful negotiation of other times: release of political prisoners in exchange for lifting sanctions and other benefits for the dictatorship.”
The opponent clarifies: “If my life and that of my family depend on me asking for such things, I prefer my death in this Nazi-style concentration camp and even the sacrifice of my family.” And he adds, without making it clear whether his departure can take place in the short term, “I leave Cuba, only with my dignity and my head held high, and not for long.”
“He deserves a welcome worthy of a hero and will receive it,” said Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart
Nelva Ortega, who confirmed to Martí Noticias the authenticity of the letter, reiterates that the decision to accept exile “was taken after months of torture, beatings and extreme conditions of imprisonment” and that “it was the only way to protect the family and prevent them from responding with violence in such inhumane circumstances.” However, she did not clarify when the departure would occur, which, according to Ferrer in his letter, would be to the United States. In his view, it is the only country that “maintains a firm stance against the communist regime and is truly in solidarity with the peaceful opposition and the Cuban people.”
Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart spoke on X about the opponent’s decision, calling him a “hero” and saying, “After years of imprisonment, beatings, physical and psychological torture and persecution by the murderous regime in Cuba simply for demanding freedom, he is being forced into exile. He deserves a welcome worthy of a hero and will receive it.”
For her part, the sister of the UNPACU leader, Ana Belkis Ferrer, told Spanish news agency EFE that her brother “accepted the banishment, but we do not yet know if it will be implemented because the dictatorship wants to profits from it, and José Daniel is not going to agree to any negotiations.”
The initial joy of the family for the possible release of Ferrer from prison turned into “something very frustrating,” reports EFE from its conversation with the activist’s sister, who said: “Not every human being would be willing to go through that: it’s a constant martyrdom.”
“Not every human being would be willing to go through that: it’s a constant martyrdom”
The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), of which the UNPACU leader is president, also spoke in favor of the opponent’s decision. “We know what it will have cost him to take it,” they say in a statement. “He has the right to his own life and to be with his family.” The platform stresses that it is a determination “intimately linked to the horrors of prison where he has been treated like an animal, subjected to beatings, physical and psychological torture, which only a person of great physical strength, emotional and spiritual like his, has allowed him to endure.”
The CTDC adds that Ferrer “is and will always be, wherever he lives, an icon and an example for all of us.” The “clarity” of the opponent, they warn, “will not be undermined by any disinformation campaign of a structurally lying regime very comfortable with the ecosystem of deep fakes, fakes news and post-truth.”
On previous occasions, Ferrer had spoken out against leaving the country, as offered by State Security in exchange for not keeping him in prison and under torture. The opponent was informed of the charges against him -propaganda against the constitutional order and contempt of Díaz-Canel- two weeks after he was imprisoned.
Ferrer was violently removed from his home, also the headquarters of UNPACU, in Altamira, Santiago de Cuba, after three months of constant harassment. According to his family, the State Security agents “completely ransacked” the house and took him away, along with Nelva Ortega and their young son, Daniel José, although they were released hours later.
On the same day, April 29, Félix Navarro was also arrested with his wife, the Dama de Blanco [Lady in White] Sonia Álvarez, during a visit to the prison in Mantazas where their daughter Sayli Navarro is being held.
Both opponents were part of the group of prisoners released last January under an agreement between the regime and the Vatican and returned to prison eight days after the death of the previous pope, Francis.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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