The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba participated this Tuesday in a public hearing before the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights.
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, Brussels, 8 April 2025 — “The European Union must analyze and rethink its relations with the Cuban regime,” opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer told 14ymedio after participating on Tuesday at a public hearing before the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights.
The event addressed the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba, and both Ferrer and activist Rosa María Payá, founder of Cuba Decide, spoke via telematics. The former political prisoner hopes that his message has been “clear, precise and forceful” and will help the European Union to revise the Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation that it maintains with the Cuban authorities.
“A stronger stance must be taken towards the main repressor of freedom in the Americas,” Ferrer told 14ymedio. ” We are talking about a regime that is the main violator of human rights on the American continent and the ally, precisely, of the main enemies of freedom and democracy on the planet.” Havana, the opponent recalled, is an ally “even of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which invaded Ukraine.”
“This regime cannot continue to be treated as it has been treated in recent years by the European Union,” the dissident insisted
“This regime cannot continue to be treated as it has been treated in recent years by the European Union,” the dissident insisted to this newspaper, on a day when his home was also subject to a strong police operation. Nevertheless, Ferrer warned of the ambivalences that mark the European position towards Havana.
“We have seen for years that the European Parliament ends up adopting resolutions of solidarity in favor of human rights in Cuba and in favor of the release of political prisoners. However, at the same time, we have seen the European Commission maintain the same relations and the same rather lukewarm, rather pallid stance in the face of serious human rights
violations in Cuba,” explained the leader of UNPACU, referring to the lack of powers of the European Parliament vis-à-vis the Commission, which is the executive body of the Union.
At the hearing, Ferrer indicated that Cuba “remains one of the nations where freedom of the press, expression and peaceful demonstration are least respected.” The opponent also argued that the country’s prisons “resemble the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.”
“We need stronger policies towards the greatest enemy of democracy and human rights on the American continent. We need solidarity with those who fight to make Cuba a prosperous nation, friend of the European Union and the West,” he concluded.
For more than a week, the headquarters of UNPACU, located in the neighborhood of Altamira, in Santiago de Cuba, has been besieged by State Security, to prevent Ferrer from distributing food among hundreds of vulnerable people who come to his home in search of something to eat and for medical care by his wife, Dr. Nelva Ortega.
For his part, the deputy director for the Americas of the Human Rights Watch initiative, Juan Pappier, considered that “the European Parliament and the European External Action Service have a fundamental role to play: they must lead. We call upon the Parliament to strongly condemn the violations of human rights in Cuba and to oppose comprehensive sanctions that harm the population.”
The leader of the project, which investigates and reports on the abuse of vulnerable people in the world, explained the limits to freedom of expression and press on the Island at the hearing
The leader of the project, which investigates and reports on the abuse of vulnerable people in the world, explained the limits to freedom of expression and press on the Island at the hearing.
“According to data for February, Cuba registered 1,150 political prisoners under house arrest or other forms of probation. In March, the release of 550 was negotiated after the intervention of the Vatican, but according to human rights groups, only 200 were political prisoners,” he said.
The first vice-president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Andrea Pochak, defined Cuba as a country with a “worrying context” that “continues to face structural human rights challenges that stem from the absence of essential rights in any representative democracy.”
He warned of the absence of political pluralism, the prohibition of association for political purposes, the criminalization of protests and “worrying” patterns of criminalization of social protest present in the country.
In her speech, Payá stated that Cuba is going through a “deep” human rights crisis. “Hunger is the main complaint of the citizenry. Health services have collapsed; cancer patients report not getting medicines, and medical care is increasingly poor,” she said .
Translated by Regina Anavy
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