The leader of UNPACU began a hunger strike this Saturday to denounce the poor conditions at the Mar Verde prison.
14ymedio, Havana, July 1, 2025 — Around eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning, Nelva Ortega, wife of political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, was arrested in Santiago de Cuba. The activist was also arrested while demanding a proof of life for Ferrer, who began a hunger strike on Saturday to denounce the bad conditions facing prisoners in Mar Verde prison, where he is detained.
The prison authorities denied the woman a visit to Ferrer, and “two Castro thugs arrested Nelva and took her to an unknown location,” according to a Facebook post by Ana Belkis Ferrer García, sister of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU). To date, the whereabouts of Ortega are unknown, although she is presumed to be in the custody of State Security.
The two minors who accompanied the doctor, her young son Daniel José and Ferrer’s daughter Fátima Beatriz, had to return to UNPACU headquarters in Altamira.
Ferrer also seeks to denounce the decision of the Cuban regime to send him back to Mar Verde
The political prisoner’s hunger strike is not only a form of protest against “the abuses, hunger, rotten food and contaminated water that makes so many prisoners sick,” as his sister detailed in an earlier note. Ferrer also seeks to denounce the decision of the Cuban regime to send him back to Mar Verde on April 29, three months after his release from prison.
The Supreme Court revoked the opponent’s parole, granted last January after a negotiation between Havana, Washington and the Vatican. According to Maricela Sosa, vice president of that court, Ferrer was found guilty of not going to court twice after his release.
“Not only did he not show up, but he also announced on his social networks, in flagrant defiance and contempt of the law, that he would not appear before any judicial authority,” Sosa told British news agency Reuters.
After his return to prison, several organizations issued an “urgent alert” for Ferrer. The Complaints Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy recalled that the opponent is “a beneficiary of precautionary protective measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH)”.
After his return to prison, several organizations issued an “urgent alert” for Ferrer
“We condemn this new aggression by the Cuban regime against those who are fighting peacefully for freedom and democracy, and we demand the immediate release of all detainees, as well as respect for their physical integrity and fundamental rights,” said the Center in a statement.
For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba issued a document where they not only demand the release of Ferrer but also give details about his legal status and assurance that he had already fully served his sentence of August 2024.
For the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights it is also “a new assault of the Cuban regime against opponents and human rights activists and reveals the increase in the repressive climate on the island”.
The organization fed hundreds of needy people in the city of the Cuban East
UNPACU and its leader lived through months of extreme tension with the political police for their humanitarian activities in Santiago de Cuba. During his release, Ferrer told in videos and statements the process by which the organization fed hundreds of needy people in the city of the Cuban East, and the obstacles that the regime has placed on his work.
Throughout this time, Ferrer assured that he would not accept conditions for his release, and that he would continue to denounce both the critical situation of the country and the responsibility of the government in the multisectoral debacle of the island.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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