Jose Daniel Ferrer’s Son Arrives in Miami After ‘Pressures’ from Cuban State Security

José Daniel Ferrer with his son in an archival photo. (Cubanet)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 22 December 2022 — Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, son of Cuban political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer García, leader of the opposition organization Unión Patriótica de Cuba, arrived in Miami after suffering “various pressures” to try to convince his father to leave the Island, as he told América Tevé.

“They wanted me to get my father out of prison; they were going to use me to try to get him out of the country, and I did not accept any condition that they put on me,” Ferrer said on América Tevé radio.

In the interview, released exclusively on Wednesday, the young man confirmed that he “recently” visited his father and that he continues on a hunger strike after beatings suffered in prison.

“He was super weak, physically he is very thin. He told me that he had been hit countless times in the ribs and kidneys that left them destroyed (…); since that day he began a hunger strike,” he told journalist Mario J. Penton.

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) recently denounced that the opponent José Daniel Ferrer, in prison after trying to join the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, was assaulted in front of his family, for which he began a hunger strike.

According to a statement from the CTDC, Ferrer “was beaten in the presence of his children and his wife during a family visit” in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, on December 9.

“My father has made many advances, he is the person who has made the most progress, but he has still not been able to achieve what he wants, which is freedom,” said the son of the opponent, who added that from exile he will “try to study for a university career and continue to support the opposition in Cuba.”

“In Cuba, people have lately chosen more to leave the country than to continue fighting,” said the young man, who, according to América Tevé, by taking the path of exile is reuniting with his mother and two of his sisters.

Ferrer was arrested on October 1, 2019 and sentenced to prison in February 2020 after a closed-door trial for an alleged crime of injury to another man, a charge that his relatives and collaborators deny.

After six months in prison, and in the midst of strong international pressure, in April 2020 his sentence was commuted to a sentence of four and a half years of house arrest.

More than a year later, the dissident was imprisoned again for joining the 11 July 2021 (11J) protests.

In August last year, Cuban justice revoked the benefit of house arrest of the well-known dissident and sentenced him to remain in prison for the remaining years of his sentence for an alleged assault.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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