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José Daniel Ferrer

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José Daniel Ferrer
Born (1970-07-29) July 29, 1970 (age 54)
NationalityCuban
OccupationHuman Rights Activist
Known forPrisoner of conscience of the Black Spring (Cuba)
TitleExecutive Secretary of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU)
ChildrenMartha Beatriz, José Daniel, Fátima Victoria
ParentDaniel Ferrer y Amelia García
RelativesLuis Enrique Ferrer García (Brother)
AwardsXIII Premio Internacional de Derechos Humanos de la Fundación Hispano-Cubana, con sede en Madrid.[1] NED Democracy Award (2009)[2]
Websitehttp://www.unpacu.org

José Daniel Ferrer García (born July 29, 1970) is a Cuban human rights activist, whom the international and Spanish media claim to be "the visible head of the dissident movement in the interior of the island since the death of Oswaldo Payá, in July 2012”.[3][4][5][6][7]

As a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) in 2003, he was the oriental leader for collecting signatures among the Varela Project, in which 25,000 signatories petitioned the Cuban government to guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as well as institute a multi-party democracy. José Daniel got in prison in 2003 for his participation as a leader of the Varela Project, sentenced to 25 years. In prison from 2003 to 2011, he was declared a prisoner of conscience for the Black Spring of Cuba by Amnesty International.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

Son of Daniel Ferrer and Amelia García, he has three children with his ex-wife Belkis Cantillo Ramírez: Martha Beatriz, José Daniel, Fátima Victoria.[18]

He is the founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), which is an umbrella group that has hosted since 2011 many Cuban dissident organizations, a union that was extended with the merger of the Guillermo Fariñas organization in 2013, which was absorbed by UNPACU.[19][20][21]

José Daniel Ferrer García was appointed in February 2013 Executive Secretary of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) by all members of the UNPACU and still remains as Executive Secretary.[22][23][24][25][26]

However, years later, following the announcement of the reestablishment of Diplomatic relations between the Governments of the United States of America and Cuba, some organizations decided to separate in friendly terms and each return to their original organization, and so Jose Daniel Ferrer resumed in front of UNPACU, while between December 2014 and January 2015, Guillermo Farinas and Felix Navarro and their respective organizations left UNPACU.

Within the opposition to the Cuban government is characterized by its willingness, through the creation of sufficient "social mass" that "through non-violent struggle forces the government to sit at the negotiating table”, to achieve an "equal to equal and serious" dialogue in order to achieve the so-called "national reconciliation" and avoid any kind of "fraticide".[27][28][29]

2003 arrest

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Ferrer was detained during the subsequent Black Spring crackdown of March 2003 and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for being one of the main promoters of the Varela Project. His brother Luis Enrique Ferrer García, also an MCL activist by then, was sentenced to 28 years. In May 2003, José Daniel began a hunger strike after he was allegedly refused medical treatment for an intestinal issue. He was also subjected to punishment cells for refusing to stand in the presence of military or prison guards. The prison cells are reportedly and habitually below the international standard and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.[30]

Amnesty International declared both Ferrer brothers to be prisoners of conscience.[30] US President Barack Obama called for Ferrer's release in 2009, urging the Cuban government to allow him to "fully participate in a democratic future in Cuba."[31]

Ferrer remained in prison until 2011.[32] He and Félix Navarro Rodríguez were released on 23 March 2011 as part of an agreement between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church. They were the last two prisoners of the Black Spring to be released. Ferrer refused the option to emigrate to Spain, stating, "I want to see a free people, and the best place to fight is here inside."[3]

Jail release

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José Daniel Ferrer received, like the rest of the prisoners of the Group called “the 75” (“Grupo de los 75”), the option of being released in exchange for leaving Cuba to Spain, due to the pressure of the international public opinion after the death in the prison of the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, on February 23, 2010, and the following hunger strike of Guillermo Fariñas, who demanded that the Cuban government release the sick political prisoners.

But José Daniel was one of the 12 prisoners of conscience who assumed his sentence, and refused to be forced to leave Cuba for being released, and in 2011 he still remained in prison along with very few colleagues of the 75, being finally released by the Cuban government along with Félix Navarro Rodríguez, the last two prisoners of conscience of the Group of the 75 in prison, on March 22, 2011.[33][34][12]

On August 24, 2011, already released from jail, and in Cuba, he created the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU).[35]

Ferrer was detained again in April 2012 for "public disorder", and again for two days in August 2012 for his work with Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU). Amnesty International described the arrests as part of "a pattern of harassment by the Cuban authorities against UNPACU members and other political dissidents."[36]

During the period of growth of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), and among numerous detentions of José Daniel Ferrer that were considered political by several reputed human rights organizations, the Patriotic Union of Cuba, on February 27, 2013, communicates the absorption of the peaceful dissident organization FANTU, one of the less numerous in the island but most notorious outside Cuba, led by then by Guillermo Fariñas, and also a multitude of other opposition organizations within the island through the integration of many of its most notorious leaders, including 8 of the 12 prisoners of conscience of the Group of 75 who decided to remain in Cuba.[37][38][39][40][24][41][42] In the process of merging FANTU and UNPACU, Jose Daniel Ferrer and Guillermo Fariñas promulgated in a press note that the head of the new organization should be collegiate, stating "that their leadership will be collegially as a practical way to combat chieftainship".[43]

José Daniel Ferrer García was appointed in February 2013 Executive Secretary of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) by all members of the UNPACU and still remains as Executive Secretary.[22][23][24][25][26]

Travel discrimination

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Since his release from prison, José Daniel Ferrer has been refused by the Cuban Government, until only once in 2016, to travel abroad, under his condition of having an extrapenal license, despite the fact that other opposition personalities have been able to do so and that the government has informed that anyone with Cuban passport could travel outside the island, since in mid-October 2012 the decree amending the immigration law in Cuba, which previously made it difficult to travel outside the island, was made official.[44][45][46]

Repression

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José Daniel Ferrer's himself and his relatives, including his wife and children, as well as other members of the Cuban Patriotic Union have received the support of Amnesty International and the World Organization against Torture on when arrested, robbed of their homes and retained in an unknown location after police detentions.[47][48][49][50] The international pressure of several human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and others, has on every occasion resulted in the release of José Daniel Ferrer.[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]

Identified as a relevant personality of Cuban dissidence, having unified several organizations inside the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), and identified this as the most active dissident organization throughout the island, both José Daniel Ferrer and the activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) have been threatened with imprisonment if they do not cease their political activism.[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]

Recognition

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In 2009, Ferrer and fellow Cuban dissidents Librado Linares García, Iván Hernández Carrillo, Jorge Luis García Pérez, and Iris Pérez Aguilera were jointly awarded the Democracy Award of the US National Endowment for Democracy. Ferrer was unable to attend, as he was still in prison.[8]

In 2011, he received the XIII International Award on Human Rights of the Cuban-Hispanic Foundation, in Madrid.[67]

Spanish and Latin American media claim him to be "the visible head of the dissident movement in the interior of the island since the death of Oswaldo Payá, in July 2012”.[3][4][5][6][7]

Personal life

[edit]

Ferrer's wife, Cantillo Belkis Ramirez, is a member of the Ladies in White, a group of wives of political prisoners protesting every Sunday for their release. She was herself detained for 48 hours in March 2012.[68][69]

References

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  1. ^ "XIII Premio 2011" (in Spanish). Fundación Hispano-Cubana. 30 November 2011. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  2. ^ Agencias DPA y ANSA (25 June 2009), Obama reclamó la liberación de presos políticos en Cuba, La Nación
  3. ^ a b c Jeff Franks (23 March 2011). "Cuba frees last of prisoners from 2003 crackdown". Reuters. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Detenido el disidente cubano José Daniel Ferrer, tras entrevistarse con el embajador de España". abc (in European Spanish). 2014-01-25. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  5. ^ a b "Detenido el líder de la organización opositora UNPACU, José Daniel Ferrer" (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2014-01-25. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  6. ^ a b "La auténtica cara del régimen castrista" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  7. ^ a b "Disidentes cubanos denuncian arresto de conocido activista | América Latina | DW | 25.01.2014". DW.COM (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  8. ^ a b Mary Beth Sheridan (25 June 2009). "Cuba Dissidents Win Award but Not Obama Audience". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  9. ^ "Cuba - Represión masiva de la disidencia". Amnesty International. 3 April 2003.
  10. ^ "CUBA: DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN CUBA". www.amnesty.org. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  11. ^ "CUBA: FURTHER INFORMATION: WOMEN DENIED RIGHT TO PROTEST". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  12. ^ a b España, Amnistía Internacional. "Las autoridades cubanas deben liberar a los activistas encarcelados". www.es.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  13. ^ "CUBA: PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE: 71 LONGING FOR FREEDOM". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  14. ^ "Cuba - Un año injustamente encarcelados: Presos de conciencia detenidos en la campaña de represión de marzo de 2003" (PDF). Amnesty International. AMR 25/005/2004: 38. 16 March 2004.
  15. ^ "CUBA: "ESSENTIAL MEASURES"? HUMAN RIGHTS CRACKDOWN IN THE NAME OF SECURITY". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). 11 January 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  17. ^ ABC. "La disidencia cubana recuerda los dos años de la muerte de Zapata en un clima represivo". ABC.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  18. ^ "José Daniel Ferrer lleva 17 días detenido "bajo condiciones crueles e infrahumanas"". www.cubaencuentro.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  19. ^ ABC. "Ex presos políticos y disidentes cubanos crean grupo para lograr mayor unidad - ABC.es - Noticias Agencias". ABC (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  21. ^ "Dos grupos opositores cubanos se fusionan para luchar contra el régimen". elnuevoherald. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  22. ^ a b "Latin American Herald Tribune - Cuban Dissidents Hope to Build Mass Organization". laht.com. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  24. ^ a b c "FANTU y UNPACU desvelan organigrama de la nueva UNPACU | Unión Patriótica de Cuba | UNPACU". www.unpacu.org (in European Spanish). 2013-02-27. Archived from the original on 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  25. ^ a b "Dos grupos opositores cubanos se fusionan para luchar contra el régimen". elnuevoherald. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  26. ^ a b "Cuba: surge una oposición unificada". Revista Estrategia & Negocios. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  27. ^ "La oposición cubana busca apoyo español para forzar a Castro al diálogo. Noticias de Mundo". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  28. ^ UNPACU (2013-06-01), Declaración de Jose Daniel Ferrer y la UNPACU sobre la entrevista en diario español., retrieved 2017-06-10
  29. ^ Sánchez, Yoani (2012-07-29). "La oposición cubana se debate entre derrocar el régimen o el diálogo". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  30. ^ a b "One year too many: prisoners of conscience from the March 2003 crackdown". Amnesty International. 16 March 2004. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  31. ^ Julianna Goldman (25 June 2009). "Obama Says Cuba Must 'Unconditionally' Free Political Prisoners". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  32. ^ "Cuba urged to release jailed activists". Amnesty International. 7 February 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  33. ^ Internet, Unidad Editorial. "Cuba libera a uno de los tres últimos presos del Grupo de los 75 | Cuba | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  34. ^ GIL, JOAQUÍN (2011-03-22). "Cuba libera a los dos últimos presos del Grupo de los 75". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  35. ^ UNPACU (2012-05-24), UNPACU, el camino de la libertad. (Vea este vídeo.), retrieved 2017-06-10
  36. ^ "Cuba must stop 'cat-and-mouse game' with political activists". Amnesty International. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  37. ^ "El preso de conciencia José Daniel Ferrer traslada a su mujer que le "están asesinando" con la comida". notimerica.com (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  38. ^ "Denuncian la detención del opositor José Daniel Ferrer por parte de la policía política cubana". notimerica.com (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  39. ^ "La Comisión de DDDH cubana denuncia que el número de presos políticos se ha duplicado en diez meses". notimerica.com (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  40. ^ "Sixty on Hunger Strike in Eastern Cuba". Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Archived from the original on 2014-07-22. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  41. ^ "Cuba.- FANTU y UNPACU se unen "para acelerar el proceso de transición pacífica hacia la democracia"". notimerica.com (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2013-02-28. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  42. ^ "UNPACU y FANTU ultiman su fusión". Diario de Cuba (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  43. ^ "La plataforma de Fariñas y la de Ferrer se unen con el objetivo de crear en breve una única organización opositora | Unión Patriótica de Cuba | UNPACU". www.unpacu.org (in European Spanish). 2013-02-07. Archived from the original on 2013-10-28. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  44. ^ "Cuba en relación a la polémica Reforma de la Ley Migratoria". SDPnoticias.com (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  45. ^ "La líder de las Damas de Blanco obtiene el pasaporte y podrá viajar por primera vez fuera de Cuba". notimerica.com (in European Spanish). Europa Press. 2013-02-08. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  46. ^ MartÍ, Paul Rodríguez / Radio. "Niegan pasaporte a preso político con licencia extrapenal". Radio y Televisión Martí | Martinoticias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  47. ^ "Cuba: Continua detención arbitraria del Sr. José Daniel Ferrer García, Coordinador General de la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU) / 19 abril 2012 / Intervenciones Urgentes / Campañas urgentes / OMCT". www.omct.org (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  48. ^ "Cuba: Oleada de represión sigue / 5 abril 2012 / Intervenciones Urgentes / Campañas urgentes / OMCT". www.omct.org (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  49. ^ "Cuba: Presentación de un informe alternativo ante el Comité Contra la Tortura / 25 abril 2012 / Informes y Publicaciones / Vigilancia de los mecanismos... / OMCT". www.omct.org (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  50. ^ "Cuba: Detención arbitraria del Sr. José Daniel Ferrer García_ Temor por su seguridad y por su integridad personal / 23 febrero 2012 / Intervenciones Urgentes / Campañas urgentes / OMCT". www.omct.org (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  54. ^ "CUBA: PRISONER FREED, IF GIVES UP POLITICAL ACTIVISM: JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER GARCÍA". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  55. ^ "CUBA: FURTHER INFORMATION: CUBAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE STILL HELD: JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER GARCÍA". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  56. ^ "CUBA: CRACKDOWN ON CUBAN DISSIDENTS". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  57. ^ "CUBA: ROUTINE REPRESSION: POLITICAL SHORT-TERM DETENTIONS AND HARASSMENT IN CUBA". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  58. ^ "CUBA: EX PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE BELIEVED DETAINED: JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER GARCÍA". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  59. ^ "CUBA: FURTHER INFORMATION: JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER GARCIA RELEASED". www.amnesty.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  63. ^ "Apoyo irrestricto al líder opositor cubano José Daniel Ferrer García". archive.is. 2013-07-01. Archived from the original on 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2017-06-10.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  64. ^ Martí, José Luis Ramos / Radio. "Detenido José Daniel Ferrer". Radio y Televisión Martí | Martinoticias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  65. ^ dice, Gabriel. "¿Por qué José Daniel?". Penúltimos Días. Archived from the original on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  67. ^ "FUNDACIÓN HISPANO CUBANA - XIII PREMIO INTERNACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS DE LA FUNDACIÓN HISPANO CUBANA - 2011". www.hispanocubana.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
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  69. ^ James Bone (26 March 2012). "Cuba crackdown in dissidents marks start of Pope visit". The Australian. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
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