The United States said this Thursday that it was “outraged” at the complaints from relatives, human rights NGOs and Cuban dissident organizations who claim that the opponent and prisoner for political reasons José Daniel Ferrer is hospitalized after having received a “brutal beating.”
“Outraged to hear reports that @jdanielferrer was beaten in prison and transferred to another facility,” the State Department’s head for Latin America said in his X account. Brian Nichols.
Outraged to hear reports that @jdanielferrer He was beaten in prison and transferred to another detention center. We urge the Cuban government to grant immediate access to his family and release Ferrer and the nearly 1,000 political prisoners unjustly detained in… https://t.co/LCJkagl9eP
— United States Embassy in Cuba (@USEmbCuba) November 22, 2024
“We call on the Government of Cuba to allow immediate access to his family and release him, along with the nearly 1,000 political prisoners unjustly detained in Cuba,” he added.
Ferrer’s relatives explained to EFE from Cuba that several political prisoners had transmitted them information that the opponent had received a “brutal beating” by the staff of the prison where he was held.
According to the coincident account of these sources, Ferrer was seriously attacked and, not being able to be properly attended to in the prison infirmary in which he is serving his sentence, the Mar Verde penitentiary center (eastern Cuba), had to be transferred to Bonito (eastern), which supposedly has a better medical center.
They point out that he has been admitted to Room A of the Bonito Prison infirmary for three days. although details about his health status are not known.who according to his relatives had deteriorated significantly in recent months in prison by adding different conditions to previous conditions related to his stays in prison.
In prison since 2021
Ferrer has been in prison since July 11, 2021, when he was arrested for joining the anti-government demonstrations that were taking place that day in different parts of the country in the largest protest in Cuba in decades.
However, Ferrer -leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU)- He had previously been in prison for political reasons and had been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
The opponent was one of the 75 intellectuals, journalists and opponents imprisoned in the repressive wave of 2003 known as the “black spring.” In 2011 he was released, but was subsequently arrested on several occasions.
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