The Biden administration publicly condemned on Thursday the beating of Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer in Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba.
The spokesperson for the Democratic administration has been Ambassador Brian A. Nichols, the Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, who, in a message on X (formerly Twitter), called for the release of the general coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) and the thousand political prisoners unjustly serving sentences in Cuban prisons.
“Outraged by reports that José Daniel Ferrer was assaulted in prison and transferred to another detention center. We call on the Cuban government to provide immediate access to his family and to release him and the nearly 1,000 political prisoners unjustly held in Cuba,” he wrote on social media.
Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez also expressed his outrage over the beating of José Daniel Ferrer, calling on X for his release and an end to repression in Cuba.
In the same vein, Senator Rick Scott, former governor of Florida, stated on Elon Musk’s social network that the Cuban regime is trying to kill José Daniel Ferrer and called on the Biden Administration for immediate action to demand the release of all Cuban political prisoners.
“The Biden administration must take action. The United States must immediately demand proof that José Daniel Ferrer is alive. If José Daniel is killed by the Castro-Díaz-Canel regime, his death will not be solely due to their malice, but to four years of weak appeasement by Biden and his refusal to defend human rights in Cuba and to protect innocent political prisoners,” Scott added.
According to information conveyed by a political prisoner to the sister of José Daniel Ferrer, the opposition leader was urgently transferred to the prison hospital in Boniato on November 19 after being “brutally beaten.”
José Daniel Ferrer’s wife, Nelva Ortega, is on Friday alongside other family members outside the Boniato prison, where a prison official confirmed that her husband is hospitalized, but also told her that they cannot show him to her. She has been denouncing for some time that her husband is being slowly killed.
José Daniel Ferrer has been imprisoned since the historic protests on July 11, 2021. His time in prison has been among the harshest on record. He is not only incarcerated for attempting to peacefully protest, but also has had his contact with his wife and children severely restricted; he has been placed in solitary confinement, and on several occasions, it has been necessary to demand proof of life due to concerns for his well-being.
Last August, several Cuban organizations and personalities promoted José Daniel Ferrer’s candidacy for the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament.
On July 29, Ferrer turned 54 years old in the notorious Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba. He spent the day in a sealed cell. His family has not seen him since last March.
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