- Cuban opponent José Daniel Ferrer refused to appear in court after receiving an official summons
- The US representative in Havana, Mike Hammer, visited the family of political prisoner Sissi Abascal
14ymedio, Havana, 28 January 2025 — Cuban opponent José Daniel Ferrer, released on January 16 after spending three and a half years in prison, refused to appear before a judge in Santiago de Cuba on Tuesday, after receiving a summons. “You don’t have to be a fortune teller to know that this is a threat to return me to prison if I do not stop my political and social activism in favor of freedom,” he said in an audio. Ferrer is also the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), which has its headquarters in his house, where two policemen arrived to deliver the summons.
Ferrer did not take long to display the piece of paper on social networks along with a text that said: “I’m not going anywhere. If their intention is to threaten me with going back to prison, they’re wasting their time.” Then he sent out an audio message that reached 14ymedio: “Save those threats. I am not going to appear before any execution judge, I have never committed any crime, and the many times I have been imprisoned is for defending human rights.”
The opponent added: “If they are going to return me to prison, to those dens of evil and terror, where political prisoners die, where common prisoners die, where conditions for the criminal population in general are very similar to a concentration camp, they must keep in mind that for the well-being and freedom of my nation I am willing not only to go to prison, but also to give my life.”
The summons to appear in court did not arrive just at Ferrer’s house. “Today all the political prisoners released from Villa Clara were summoned to the courts of the respective municipalities where they reside, to begin the harassment, blackmail and repression,” journalist and former political prisoner Carlos Michael Morales denounced on X.
The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which he is also president, stood in solidarity with the leader of Unpacu
The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which he is also president, stood in solidarity with the leader of Unpacu. It published a video of the opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa warning about the regime’s harassment of Ferrer. “You want to commit an injustice against a person who should have been liberated, not just released from prison,” he said.
Ferrer’s post on social networks was also shared by the US Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, which said that “the Cuban dictatorship is again attacking and persecuting the brave pro-democratic leader” after “the regime made a deal with the Catholic Church to ’free’ political prisoners.”
“We will not be fooled by their games or participate in them. The illegitimate regime is directly responsible for its treatment of Ferrer and all the political prisoners that it continues to detain unfairly,” the Office added in its publication, which was replicated shortly after by the US Embassy on the Island.
Mike Hammer, the new US representative in Havana, has held meetings in recent days with relatives of Cuban political prisoners and activists, such as the academic Alina Bárbara López.
Annia Zamora, Sissi Abascal’s mother, arrested for demonstrating during the protests of 11 July 2021, also received the representative in her home. In conversation with 14ymedio, Zamora said that Hammer’s visit was “very pleasant. Everything flowed very well. He is very interested in knowing the situation of our prisoners and about my daughter. The family is very grateful for his concern, his interest and for visiting us,” she said.
She also explained that the meeting helped Abascal’s family to feel that they are not alone and that there are “people fighting for our prisoners.”
Since the prison authorities communicated this to Abascal last week, her mother has not heard more news
Both Sissi Abascal and Sayli Navarro, who is also a Lady in White and daughter of the opponent Félix Navarro, were two of the names expected to be on the regime’s list of released prisoners. Far from it, the regime has been cruel to them, forcing them to adhere to a “severe regime” and denying them even the prison benefits to which they are entitled because of their “negative attitude.”
Since the prison authorities communicated this to Abascal last week, her mother has not heard more news. “I haven’t known anything about Sissi since Thursday. On Monday she was allowed a call, but there was a blackout and it was impossible for her to communicate with us,” says Zamora, who clarifies that “Sissi was denied the 120 days of reduction [in sentence] that they do every year. They told her that in 2024 she didn’t have a single day of reduction, it was zero.”
Regarding Navarro, the woman explains that she was denied a less severe regime for another six months, when she will be evaluated again. “Sissi had already been denied in September,” she adds. In a previous interview with this newspaper, Zamora explained that this is the fourth time that the prison authorities have rejected the transition to a less severe regime. “The situation of my daughter and all the political prisoners is worrying. The repression against them is very strong,” she said at the time.
According to Zamora, the conditions in which both opponents find themselves in the La Bellotex prison, in Matanzas, continue to worsen. “They are given water only at night. There is little food, poorly prepared,” she says, and adds: “When Sissi and Sayli call they have a high-ranking officer monitoring them.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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