The opponent’s sister confirmed the news through a prisoner in Boniato, the Santiago de Cuba prison with a hospital to which he was allegedly transferred
14ymedio, Havana, November 21, 2024 — The activist and leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, is admitted to the hospital of the Boniato prison, in Santiago de Cuba, after having suffered an attack in the Mar Verde prison, where he has been serving a sentence since the island-wide protests of 11 July 2021.
The opponent’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer, posted the news on her social networks this Wednesday, 24 hours after receiving the information, the source of which she did not specify.
“Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, November 19, 2024, we were informed from Cuba that José Daniel Ferrer Garcia had been brutally beaten and taken out of the Mar Verde prison. Today, a political prisoner confined in Boniato prison told a relative that José Daniel has been admitted to the prison hospital,” explained Ferrer’s sister, also an activist.
The sister demanded that the leadership of the regime provide information about her brother’s condition. “We demand that Raúl Castro, Díaz-Canel and all the members of the criminal dictatorship give signs of Ferrer’s life immediately. We hold them responsible for his physical and psychological integrity, and we demand his freedom and that of all political prisoners,” she added.
Early this Thursday, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) released an identical statement, condemning what it has “been denouncing for years, along with other actors of civil society.”
The organization “deplores and condemns this act of violence, which shows the systematic dehumanization of conditions in Cuban prisons
The organization “deplores and condemns this act of violence, which shows the systematic dehumanization of conditions in Cuban prisons. Nothing in the prison regulations authorizes prison agents to inflict permanent physical punishment on those who, like José Daniel Ferrer, do not bow to injustice and humiliation for the exercise of their rights .”
The CTDC, which calls José Daniel Ferrer “a courageous pro-democratic fighter,” is forceful, “making it clear that the Cuban Government is solely responsible for the consequences, whatever they are” on the health of the opponent. The organization also sends its “support and solidarity” to the family of the UNPACU leader, as well as to his friends and members of that organization.
“The international community must urgently speak out against this abuse that many Cuban prisoners suffer,” the statement concludes.
The last time Ferrer’s family had news from Mar Verde prison was on November 4, when, for the umpteenth time, they were denied the right to visit him. They have been denied access for 20 consecutive months,
according to his sister.
They have been denied access to that right for 20 consecutive months, according to his sister
Ana Belkis Ferrer, who currently resides in the United States, told Martí Noticias that he is also denied the right to receive “phone calls.” The leader of UNPACU has been in prison since 2021, and his family was barely able to see him on 11 occasions, although nine marital visits were allowed, all under strict control.
“March 2023 was the last time he had visits and was able to talk to his wife and his son, Daniel José,” said his sister, adding that Ferrer suffers from mistreatment and isolation in a punishment cell with little lighting.
The Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, and the priest Camilo de la Paz, in charge of the Pastoral Penitentiary of the diocese, visited Ferrer on September 7, said his wife, Nelva Ortega Tamayo. She was glad at least that “after so long, a “person of God” was able to visit her husband and offer him “encouragement.”
That meeting revealed that his state of health was not entirely good, with heartburn, stomach pains and a “practically useless” arm. However, he was mentally “stable” and firm about remaining in prison despite the regime’s offers.
“They have maintained their harassment, repression and threats. They remind him that he could spend his whole life in prison if he doesn’t decide to leave the country, and he has made it very clear that he prefers to die inside rather than leave,” Ortega stressed. Her husband is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and other organizations.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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