Cuban activists not seen since August 3rd in custody of State Security, families fear for their lives

Castro regime tried giving Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia the death penalty in 2003 for his role in a petition drive.

They have not been seen since August 3, 2018

Activists not seen since Friday, August 3rd
On the night of August 3, 2018 Castro agents detained Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, the leader of the Eastern based Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), at the organization's principle headquarters in Altamira, Santiago de Cuba, reported his sister Ana Belkis Ferrer Garcia over twitter.

Liettys Rachel Reyes, Ferrer Garcia's wife, reported over Facebook that Dainier Suárez Pagá, a Cuban state security agent with a violent history was involved in an incident involving a car. Later it was learned that Jose Daniel was detained along with fellow UNPACU activist Ebert Hidalgo.

State Security agent and repressor Dainier Suárez Pagan

Ana Belkis identified a second regime agent named Dairon who lead a dozen Castro sicarios, in their two patrol cars in an operative against Jose Daniel on Friday night during the detention. 

Three days have passed and neither Jose Daniel or Ebert has been seen by friends or relatives. They are concerned that they have been beaten up or worse.  Liettys Reyes over twitter has demanded her husband, the father of her daughter, be immediately released.

Exijo la liberación inmediata para @jdanielferrer detenido injustamente por dictadura #CastroCanel y desaparecido liberen al padre de mi hijaaaa!!! @ccanales1771 @Lalysam @Liusantiesteban pic.twitter.com/LE6XFIwWIf

— Liettys Rachel (@liettysrachel) August 6, 2018

An opposition family
One must review the historical record to understand the special animosity that the Castro regime has for the Ferrer Garcia family.  José Daniel Ferrer García, his brother Luis Enrique Ferrer García and sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García have a long history of opposition activism.

The Ferrer Garcia Family: Luis Enrique, Ana Belkis, and Jose Daniel

They were born into a working class family in the neighborhood of Manganeso in Santiago de Cuba. Both brothers began their activism in the opposition in the Movimiento Cubano de Jóvenes por la Democracia (Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement), and by the mid nineties had become members of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement).José Daniel emerged as a leader in Santiago de Cuba and Luis Enrique in Las Tunas.

Both Jose Daniel and Luis Enrique were regional leaders who also became regional organizers of the Varela Project. They both persuaded and organized other Cubans to knock on doors and get their fellow citizens to sign their names and giver their identity numbers in a petition demanding democratic and human rights reforms to the Cuban Constitution. On May 10, 2002 the first batch of 11,020 signatures were turned into the National Assembly. Less than a year later the majority of the organizers of this initiative were rounded up beginning on March 18, 2003. Seven months later more than another 14,000 signatures were turned in.

Both Ferrer Garcia brothers would face summary trials and a hostile courtroom. Both men demonstrated their courage during their respective political show trials.

During Luis Enrique’s show trial on April 3, 2003 in Las Tunas, the tribunal asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. He stood up and explained to the regime’s representatives what the Varela Project consisted of: an independent citizen initiative that sought a referendum to reestablish basic rights. At the end of his explanation he invited them to sign the petition stating, “Because this is a project open to all Cubans.” Luis Enrique Ferrer received the longest prison sentence of all of those arrested in the March 2003 crackdown. He was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment. He was transferred from "El Típico" provincial prison in Las Tunas to the Combinado del Este prison after being involved in a protest with other activists caught up in the March 2003 crackdown.

In the case of José Daniel Ferrer García, Cuban officials had announced that they would seek the death penalty against him because of his leadership position in the Project Varela initiative and its national impact. At his show trial José Daniel explained that he was willing to die for his convictions but that he did not think that they had the guts to do it. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Despite the harsh conditions and constant harassment by prison officials he continued his nonviolent resistance activism.

With both brothers in prison their sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García became active in the Ladies in White, a group of women that came into existence during the 2003 Black Spring and sought the freedom of their imprisoned loved ones. Confronting violent mobs with nonviolent resistance and persistence in regular protests and actions to demand their freedom. She would engage in solidarity hunger strikes when her brothers had gone on hunger strike due to some mistreatment they were suffering in order to highlight their plight.


José Daniel refused to be forced to choose between prison and exile. Luis Enrique suffering from ten chronic pathologies held out as long as he could but left with his wife and some of his family for exile while José Daniel remained in prison. They paid a price for wanting to stay. According to the agreement announced by the Catholic Church the last of the prisoners were supposed to have been freed on November 7, 2010 and Luis Enrique was only released into exile on November 19, 2010 and Jose Daniel was one of the last two of the group of the 75 to be released on March 24, 2011. Unlike many others who were taken from their prison cells to the airport, José Daniel was one of 12 who left his prison cell and returned home eight years after being unjustly imprisoned in The Black Spring.

 His brother, Luis Enrique Ferrer García, campaigned for his release from exile and spoke at an international human rights conference in Geneva calling for his brother’s freedom. This also led to Jose Daniel's wife frustrated and outraged undergoing a hunger strike to demand her husband’s freedom. More than four months after the deadline he was finally released after more than eight years. Since the latest detention of José Daniel Ferrer García on April 2, 2012, his brother Luis Enrique has organized a campaign for his release and is tweeting both from his own account and his brother’s twitter account to raise awareness and solidarity.

UNPACU founded in August of 2011

Birth of UNPACU
 On August 24, 2011 Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia founded together with other opposition activists who desire to finalize the democratic process in Cuba, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) that has as its principal objective the massive growth of the nonviolent struggle for democracy. It is an organization that describes itself as nonviolent but not passive.

In the midst of the descriptions of violence and repression visited on Cuban pro-democracy activists by agents of the regime in Cuba, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia made the following call to action for a free Cuba over twitter in 2011:

To democratize Cuba we should obtain the massive growth of the resistance. For the resistance to become massive we need rapid and effective communication with the populace.

To achieve change in Cuba, we have to reach the people. For rapid communication with the populace, we need the technical means.

We cannot advance more in the democratization of our homeland for lack of technical means and the resources for them.

There is no struggle for the good without loses and without risks. Who fears the risks never will achieve any advance in the struggle. Being careful is one thing, not risking is something very different. Great achievements are not obtained without great sacrifice.

Jose Daniel and the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) are right solidarity with those risking everything inside of Cuba is needed along with the willingness of people of good will to take risks for freedom on the island.

Twitter Campaign
Today there will be a twitter campaign for the release of Jose Daniel and Ebert using the hashtags #FreeFerrer #FreeEbert #FreePoliticalPrisoners. I would also add #FreeEduardoCardet.

The Courageous Ferrer García Family

A tale of two brothers and their sister

"You have to pay a great cost but it is worth it to pay it. Because when you live in a nation when the most elemental rights are violated to submit to it, I think is to pay a greater cost then to confront those who violate those rights. That is to say that I have made mine a phrase by Henry Thoreau, the North American writer. I used it a lot in prison when they asked me why I didn't accept the proposal made to me to leave the country in order to leave the prison. I always said, like Thoreau, that in a country where fundamental rights are violated the best place for an honorable man is a prison. I preferred prison to being on the street and witness that my people's rights are being violated and do nothing." - José Daniel Ferrer García, February 13, 2012 Estado SATS

Luis Enrique Ferrer García, Ana Belkis Ferrer García, and José Daniel Ferrer García before the 2003 crackdown

The Castro regime wanted to execute José Daniel Ferrer García in 2003 requesting the death penalty in a show trial but the international outcry caused them to back down and sentence him to a 25 year prison sentence instead. After the untimely and sinister death of Cuban Lady in White founder, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo on October 14, 2011 the threat to José Daniel's life cannot be underestimated. Like Laura Pollán,  José Daniel has a nonviolent strategic vision and an ability to mobilize and organize people combined with great courage. He has founded the opposition movement the Patriotic Union of Cuba. In the midst of a violent crackdown in August of 2011 Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia made the following call to action for a free Cuba over twitter:

• To democratize Cuba we should obtain the massive growth of the resistance. For the resistance to become massive we need rapid and effective communication with the populace.
• To achieve change in Cuba, we have to reach the people. For rapid communication with the populace, we need the technical means.
• We cannot advance more in the democratization of our homeland for lack of technical means and the resources for them.
• There is no struggle for the good without loses and without risks. Who fears the risks never will achieve any advance in the struggle. Being careful is one thing, not risking is something very different. Great achievements are not obtained without great sacrifice.

Conversation on SATS with Berta Soler and José Daniel Ferrer García (In Spanish)

Yoani Sanchez in her latest blog post: “Why José Daniel?” has written a beautiful and moving tribute about José Daniel Ferrer García, a brave hero, describing his relevance and current threat to the Castro regime but much more needs to be said about this courageous man and his equally brave brother Luis Enrique Ferrer García and sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García.

They were born into a working class family in the neighborhood of Manganeso in Santiago de Cuba. Fisherman, who like their Biblical counterparts, became the fishers of men. Both brothers began their activism in the opposition in the Movimiento Cubano de Jóvenes por la Democracia (Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement), and by the mid nineties had become members of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement), as a leader of which José Daniel emerged in Santiago de Cuba and Luis Enrique in Las Tunas.

Both Jose Daniel and Luis Enrique were regional leaders who also became regional organizers of the Varela Project. They both played in important role in persuading and organizing other Cubans to knock on doors and get their fellow citizens to sign their names and giver their identity numbers in a petition demanding democratic and human rights reforms to the Cuban Constitution. Ten years ago this May 10, the first batch of 11,020 signatures were turned into the National Assembly. Less than a year later the majority of the organizers of this initiative were rounded up beginning on March 18, 2003. Seven months later more than another 14,000 signatures were turned in.

Both Ferrer Garcia brothers would face summary trials and a hostile courtroom. Both men demonstrated their courage during their respective show trials.

During Luis Enrique’s show trial on April 3, 2003 in Las Tunas, the tribunal asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. He stood up and explained to the regime’s representatives what the Varela Project consisted of: an independent citizen initiative that sought a referendum to reestablish basic rights. At the end of his explanation he invited them to sign the petition stating, “Because this is a project open to all Cubans.” Luis Enrique Ferrer received the longest prison sentence of all of those arrested in the March 2003 crackdown. He was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment. He was transferred from "El Típico" provincial prison in Las Tunas to the Combinado del Este prison after being involved in a protest with other activists caught up in the March 2003 crackdown.

In the case of José Daniel Ferrer García, Cuban officials had announced that they would seek the death penalty against him because of his leadership position in the Project Varela initiative and its national impact. At his show trial José Daniel explained that he was willing to die for his convictions but that he did not think that they had the guts to do it. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Despite the harsh conditions and constant harassment by prison officials he continued his nonviolent resistance activism.


 Ana Belkis Ferrer García in 2010 denouncing treatment against her imprisoned brothers by the regime.

With both brothers in prison their sister Ana Belkis Ferrer García became active in the Ladies in White, a group of women that came into existence during the 2003 Black Spring and sought the freedom of their imprisoned loved ones. Confronting violent mobs with nonviolent resistance and persistence in regular protests and actions to demand their freedom. She would engage in solidarity hunger strikes when her brothers had gone on hunger strike do to some mistreatment they were suffering in order to highlight their plight.

José Daniel refused to be forced to choose between prison and exile. Luis Enrique suffering from ten chronic pathologies held out as long as he could but left with his wife and some of his family for exile while José Daniel remained in prison. They paid a price for wanting to stay. According to the agreement announced by the Catholic Church the last of the prisoners were supposed to have been freed on November 7, 2010 and Luis Enrique was only released into exile on November 19, 2010 and Jose Daniel was one of the last two of the group of the 75 to be released on March 24, 2011. Unlike many others who were taken from their prison cells to the airport, José Daniel was one of 12 who left his prison cell and returned home eight years after being unjustly imprisoned in The Black Spring.


Luis Enrique Ferrer García addresses human rights summit in Geneva in early 2011

His brother, Luis Enrique Ferrer García, campaigned for his release from exile and spoke at an international human rights conference in Geneva calling for his brother’s freedom. This also led to Jose Daniel's wife frustrated and outraged undergoing a hunger strike to demand her husband’s freedom. More than four months after the deadline he was finally released after more than eight years. Since the latest detention of José Daniel Ferrer García on April 2, 2012, his brother Luis Enrique has organized a campaign for his release and is tweeting both from his own account and his brother’s twitter account to raise awareness and solidarity.

Please be vigilant with regards to the plight of José Daniel Ferrer García and speak up for him because his life may very well depend on it. After 24 days in detention, Cuban officials have yesterday finally made known that they plan to accuse José Daniel of "public disturbances."

The charge of disturbing the peace places him in excellent company.

Cuban Dissident & Former Prisoner of Conscience from Black Cuban Spring to Address Today’s Geneva Rights Summit

Source: Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy (http://www.genevasummit.org)
Date: 15 March 2011

Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia to Address Geneva Summit

Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, Cuban dissident and former prisoner of conscience who received a 28-year prison sentence for his work on the Varela project, a civic initiative calling for democratic reforms in Cuba will join other former prisoners of conscience today for the third annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Luis Enrique, who served nearly 8-years of his 28 year jail term in Cuba for his nonviolent civic activism and was released in November 2010, will speak about the situation of his imprisoned brother Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, who is still in Cuba serving a 25-year prison sentence and is also an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.

Brothers José Daniel and Luis Enrique Ferrer García, both unjustly imprisoned by the Castro regime during the 2003 “Black Spring”crackdown, come from a working class family from the neighborhood of Manganeso in Santiago de Cuba.

Prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia serving 25-year prison sentence

Luis Enrique Ferrer was harassed and detained on numerous occasions. Both brothers began their activism in the opposition in the Movimiento Cubano de Jóvenes por la Democracia (Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement), and by the mid nineties had become members of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement), as a leader of which José Daniel emerged in Eastern Cuba.

For his opposition activities in Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (Christian Liberation Movement), he was summarily tried in December 1999 in the Mella Municipality and sentenced to 6 months house arrest for his refusal to pay a fine which he claimed was imposed upon him unfairly. At his trial, when asked why he did not accept the Revolution, he responded that he did not accept it because life for people was very bad. At that moment a State Security agent participating in the trial struck him in the face, breaking his lower lip. During his trial, Luis Enrique Ferrer's family members were denied access to the court room, instead having to wait in the corridor. At the end of the trial, a mob insulted and physically assaulted family members, including pushing Luis Enrique Ferrer's mother to the floor.

Luis Enrique Ferrer García was the coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (Movimento Cristiano Liberación-MCL) in Las Tunas province. He organized groups of people who collected hundreds of signatures for the Varela Project. As a result of this work by organizers like Luis Enrique Ferrer and his older brother, independent journalist José Daniel Ferrer, over 11,020 signatures were collected and presented to the National Assembly in May 2002. Luis Enrique Ferrer personally presented copies of the signatures to visiting foreign legislators. Despite the fact that the Varela Project calling for democratic reforms in Cuba was an initiative that was legal under the Cuban regime’s laws, they were taking a great personal risk in promoting it.

Beginning on March 18, 2003, the Castro dictatorship began a massive crackdown, rounding up scores of human rights defenders, independent journalists and opposition activists in what eventually became known as the Cuban Black Spring. Both José Daniel and Luis Enrique Ferrer García were arrested.

During Luis Enrique’s show trial on April 3, 2003 in Las Tunas, the tribunal asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. He stood up and explained to the regime’s representatives what the Varela Project consisted of: an independent citizen initiative that sought a referendum to reestablish basic rights. At the end of his explanation he invited them to sign the petition stating, “because this is a project open to all Cubans.”

Luis Enrique Ferrer received the longest prison sentence of all of those arrested in the March 2003 crackdown. He was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment. He was transferred from "El Típico" provincial prison in Las Tunas to Combinado del Este prison after being involved in a protest with other activists caught up in the March 2003 crackdown.

Following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010 and brutal assaults against the Cuban Ladies in White in March of 2010, international attention focused on Cuba in a negative light, which forced the regime for the first time in a the long history of dictatorship to reach out to the Catholic Church as a mediator. In July of 2010, Raul Castro committed to releasing all the prisoners of conscience from the 2003 crackdown by November 5, 2010. Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia was released in mid November and exiled to Spain. His brother Jose Daniel, who wants to remain in Cuba, is still imprisoned today.

Luis Enrique Ferrer García will be speaking at 3:30pm (Geneva Time) on The Right Against Arbitrary Arrest others participating on the panel are:

* Guang-il Jung: North Korean Dissident, tortured and escaped from labor camps.

* Farid Tukhbatullin, Turkmen human rights activist, former prisoner, threatened with death by his government

* Mohammad Mostafaei, Prominent human rights lawyer from Iran, defended Sakineh, the woman sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery

Admission to tomorrow’s Geneva Summit is free, and the public and media are invited to attend. For accreditation, program and schedule information, please visit http://www.genevasummit.org.

Global Civil Society Coalition: Collectif Urgence Darfour; Darfur Peace and Development Center; Directorio Democratico Cubano; Freedom House; Freedom Now; Human Rights Without Frontiers Int’l; IBUKA; Ingénieurs du monde; Initiatives for China; Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children; International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY); Ligue International Contre le Racisme; LINK; Respect Institut; Stop Child Executions; Tibetan Women's Association; Ticino Tibet; Uighur American Congress; UN Watch; Viet Tan.

The Geneva Summit is organized by a cross-regional coalition of 20 NGOs, including UN Watch, Freedom House and Ibuka, with the aim of providing a voice for the voiceless and advocating action on urgent human rights situations. The conference will feature victim testimonies from renowned human rights defenders, dissidents and experts, and produce draft resolutions for the UN Human Rights Council to adopt. For more on the conference, speakers and program, click here.

Reina Luisa Tamayo & the Cuban 12

How to brutalize the mother of a murdered prisoner of conscience, increase repression while deporting human rights defenders and cover it up with good press

Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger with photo of her son Orlando Zapata Tamayo

First they unjustly imprisoned her son, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. They beat him and tortured him to such an extreme that his only defense was the hunger strike. While on a water only hunger strike prison officials cut off his water for 18 days contributing to his death. As she tried to save her son’s life they secretly videotaped her and recorded her telephone conversations which they heavily edited in a pathetic attempt to white wash the Cuban dictatorship’s role in this atrocity.

Now the regime slanders, intimidates, beats and detains the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo as she attempts to attend mass and visit her son’s grave while trying to again white wash their image by inviting her to go into exile. In early November the Miami Herald reported that Reina Luisa Tamayo "was repeatedly hit on the head, thrown to the ground and gagged with a smelly rag that left her breathless," by Cuban state security agents, one of which told her to "Shut up, you lousy black."

Nine months after the untimely death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo followed by the brutal beatings of the Ladies in White the regime has used the forced exile of dozens of unjustly imprisoned prisoners of conscience to clean up its international image and distract press attention.

Nevertheless there remained 12 Cuban prisoners of conscience imprisoned from the March 2003 crackdown that wanted to stay in Cuba as of November 7, 2010. Under threats of an intensification of demonstrations and new hunger strikes agents of the regime bought some time stating that within 15 days to a month of the November 7th deadline these prisoners would be released. One of these 12 has been released and returned home since then: 68 year old Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique.

At the same time other activists are beaten and detained as repression increases around the island but the international community remains focused on prisoner "releases" into forced exile.

It is an effective strategy that needs to be challenged for the sake of Cuban civil society, the remaining prisoners of conscience and the nonviolent opposition. Now is the time for all persons of good will to spread the word on what is happening in Cuba and not allow themselves to be distracted. The dictatorship in Cuba for over half a century have been masters at the art of distraction. It is time for Cuban democrats and those in solidarity with them to look beyond the distractions and remain focused on the human rights situation on the island.

Remember the 11 prisoners of conscience from the Cuban Black Spring still imprisoned that were supposed to be released on November 7, 2010 according to agreement reached between the Catholic Church, the Spanish government and the Cuban regime:

Pedro Argüelles Morán

Oscar Biscet González

Eduardo Díaz Fleitas

José Daniel Ferrer García

Diosdado González Marrero

Iván Hernández Carrillo

Librado Linares García

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez

Angel Moya Acosta

Félix Navarro Rodríguez

Guido Sigler Amaya

These men are heroes in the mould of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. refusing exile after seven years in brutal conditions that have destroyed their health and led to the death of one of their brothers in the struggle: Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

However at the same time that the campaign for their release and that of the other political prisoners that remain incarcerated continues there remains the fact that as long as the laws are not changed or revoked that these freed prisoners will only make room for a new crop of prisoners of conscience.

Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina

Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, a grouping of Cuban human rights and pro-democracy groups in the East of the island, reports that Raudel Avila Lozada,Yoandri Montoya Aviles, Lester Mora Carbonell in Santiago de Cuba, Jorge Corrales, Rogelio Tavìo Jr., Gerardo Rodriguez, Yoandri Beltràn, Isael Poveda, Francisco Manzanet and Roberto Gonzales have all been detained by Cuban state security and were in custody as of November 20, 2010.

Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, the latest Cuban prisoner of conscience to arrive in exile in Spain, sick and physically run down expressed his sadness that there was no real political opening in Cuba but a "political white wash operation." The first winner of the Sakharov Prize, Anatoli Marchenko offered great wisdom when he observed: "I am convinced that publicity is the sole effective means of combating the evil and lawlessness which is rampant in my country today."

Today it is up to you to assist Cuba's Marchenko's in bringing attention to the systematic violation of human rights in the island. Two things that you can do immediately that will only take a moment is to sign petitions for the freedom of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.