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The United States demanded the Cuban regime on Monday release “immediately” the dissident José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), which remains arbitrarily imprisoned since last October.
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“For the good of the Cuban people and for the improvement in their nation, we urge you to immediately release José Daniel Ferrer and take the first step towards a better future for Cuba”, said the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, in a letter issued by the State Department.
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The head of US diplomacy alleges that, in the more than one hundred days he has been “unfairly” imprisoned, Ferrer “has been dragged, chained, beaten and burned repeatedly” by agents of the Cuban regime.
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Groups such as Amnesty International (AI) and institutions such as the Organization of American States (OAS) have requested the release of Ferrer, for whom the Cuban Prosecutor’s Office asks for nine years in jail, his wife revealed last January.
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Ferrer, one of the Cuban dissidents with the greatest international projection, has been imprisoned since last October in Santiago de Cuba for an alleged assault on another man, a charge that his relatives deny while ensuring that it is a “prefabricated” crime by the Castro dictatorship.
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The dissident, 49, He spent almost eight years in prison as part of the 75 opponents imprisoned in the “Black Spring” of 2003, in his case for being one of the promoters of the Varela Project, led by the late dissident Oswaldo Payá.
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According to Pompeo, the “spurious” charges against Ferrer follow a “family pattern of harassment, violence and arbitrary arrests” against the increasingly depleted dissent inside the island.
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“USA. He will never forget the brave Cubans who risked their lives for the sake of a free Cuba. Until there is democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba and all political prisoners are released, USA. will continue to hold the regime accountable for its abuses ”, the US secretary of state warned.
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Since arriving at the White House in January 2017, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has tightened the policy towards Cuba with reductions of diplomatic personnel, the increase of the trade embargo, restrictions on cruises and limits on the travel of Americans to the island.
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These measures have been welcomed by enthusiasm by the Cuban exile in Florida, one of the key states for the November elections, in which Trump is elected to re-election.
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