José Daniel Ferrer — the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), the nation’s largest dissident organization — announced that he has agreed to go into forced exile after enduring months of unbearable torture.
Ferrer is one of the most prominent Cuban anti-communist dissidents and human rights activists. Since the events of the 2003 “Black Spring” dissident crackdown, Ferrer has been repeatedly subjected to unjust detentions and degrading and inhumane treatment by Castro regime officials, such as being fed rotten food and “semi-fecal” water in 2019.
In January, the Castro regime briefly released Ferrer from prison alongside several others as per the terms of an “agreement” between Cuba and the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden, mediated by the Vatican. None of the released individuals were given a full release and instead were “ex-incarcerated,” a euphemism used by the Cuban communists that tacitly imposes restrictions that bar the “ex-incarcerated” from living a normal life. The Castro regime deliberately elongated the release process through the middle of March.
On April 19, three months after his release, the Castro regime raided Ferrer’s home, which also doubles as UNPACU’s headquarters, and violently reimprisoned the activist over the dubious claim he allegedly failed to attend two mandatory court hearings following his release. Ferrer remains a political prisoner since the raid.
Ferrer’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer Garcia, published a copy of a multi-page handwritten letter penned by Ferrer and dated September 10 in which he announced that he has accepted getting forced out of Cuba after pressure from the Castro regime. Ferrer cited years of brutal beatings, torture, humiliation, threats of death, and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment as informing his decision. Ferrer’s wife, Nelva Ismaray Ortega, confirmed the letter’s authenticity to Martí Noticias over the weekend.
“My family has also been subjected to the most ruthless persecution. All with the intention of forcing me to leave my country. Oh, to give up the nonviolent struggle for freedom, democracy, human rights, and the well-being of my homeland. Over the last four months and nine days, the dictatorship’s cruelty toward me has exceeded all limits,” the letter read.
“The beatings, torture, humiliation, threats, and extreme conditions. The theft of my food and toiletries, ordered by the regime’s henchmen. The threats against my wife and children in Cuba have been greater than at any time before in prison. All with the intention of forcing me to abandon my homeland,” the letter continued.
Ferrer explained in the letter that he had already decided to go into exile before the April 29 raid on his home — a decision, he detailed, he took for the safety of his family and in response to the “frustration I felt upon leaving prison when I saw the disunity, sectarianism, and ineffectiveness of the opposition inside and outside Cuba in the struggle for the freedom and well-being of our homeland.”
“Faced with constant pressure from the political police to leave Cuba, I finally agreed to go into exile. Since the process to make this happen began, as always, the regime’s agents have been playing dirty: They continue with their plan of harassment, threats, humiliation, theft, and extreme conditions,” the letter read. “They exerted strong pressure on me to marry my beloved partner, Nelva Ismarays Ortega, on the birthday of the deceased dictator. They have been making videos and recordings with the intention of publishing them to cast doubt on our commitment to the struggle for freedom in Cuba.”
The activist denounced that the Castro regime wanted him to issue statements asking the U.S. embassy and the Catholic Church to start a dialogue for “shameful negotiations” like past ones in an effort to secure sanctions relief in exchange for the “release” of political prisoners.
“I want to make it very clear that if my life and that of my family depend on me asking for such things, I would rather die in this Nazi-style concentration camp and even sacrifice my family. I will only leave Cuba with my dignity and honor intact, and not for long,” Ferrer stressed.
Ferrer’s wife, Nelva Ismaray Ortega, denounced to Martí Noticias that the Castro regime has not finalized Ferrer’s departure from Cuba nor has it provided the required documentation for it to happen — keeping the activist instead under what his family described as conditions of “psychological pressure and systematic torture.” Ortega also denounced that the Castro regime is attempting to discredit Ferrer using manipulated videos, going as far as falsely linking their wedding to Fidel Castro’s birth.
“He made this decision for the safety of his family and because of all the horror he has experienced in prison. He has been beaten, humiliated, threatened, and deprived of food and medicine. He has had to survive in subhuman conditions, alongside common criminals and under the surveillance of state officials,” Ortega said.
“We have been waiting for months for them to give him a release date, but they continue to hold our documents and pressure him to make statements in favor of dialogue between the regime and the United States, something he will not accept,” she continued.
Ortega stressed to Martí Noticias that Ferrer was “pale, with many scars from torture and bedbug bites” when she last saw him and further denounced that he spends days without sunlight, medical attention, and that rain has flooded his cell, soaking all of his belongings.
Ferrer wrote in the letter that although he has “lost faith” in many dissidents due to their disunity, he still has faith in the “good fighters” who remain in Cuba and assured that he will continue until victory is achieved or he dies trying to see a free Cuba.
The activist also lamented the “complicity of the weak stance of the free world” towards the Castro regime and its alliance with the “main enemies of freedom of the planet,” and praised the United States for maintaining a firm stance against the communist regime and solidarity with the Cuban people.
“I only want my children and my wife to be able to emigrate to the United States. I wanted to save them from so much harassment, persecution, and danger, but the tyranny is determined to make my life impossible,” Ferrer wrote.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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