Cuba: Political Leader Held Incommunicado

José Daniel Ferrer García is an activist and leader of the unofficial political opposition group “Patriotic Union of Cuba”. He was detained on 11 July 2021, in the context of island-wide protests, and has been imprisoned ever since. 

On 11 July, José Daniel tried to attend the country-wide demonstrations in Santiago de Cuba with his son. He left his house and walked past the state security officials who constantly monitor him, but other law enforcement officials stopped him a few meters ahead. 

José Daniel Ferrer García and his son were detained together and initially following his detention there was no formal record of José Daniel’s whereabouts, and the authorities did not allow his family to see or communicate with him. Amnesty International believes that the concealment of his whereabouts amounted to an enforced disappearance for the purposes of Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to which Cuba is a state party.

For his attempt to join the protests, José Daniel Ferrer García was charged with “public disorder,” however, a year after his arrest he has not received a trial and remains in prison. In 2020, following a different trial tainted by irregularities, José Daniel was convicted to four and a half years of house arrest. According to documents seen by Amnesty International, due to the new charges of “public disorder” a Provincial Tribunal in Santiago revoked his house arrest in August 2021, obliging him to pass that previous sentence in prison.

On 4 June 2022, a Provincial Tribunal in Santiago denied a habeas corpus request submitted by his family.

On 7 July 2022, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances informed NGO Prisoners Defenders that it had written to Cuba asking the state to provide information about the fate and whereabouts of José Daniel to his family and lawyers, and to provide the Committee with detailed information about his current access to communication with the outside world. 

Prior to his detention on 11 July, José Daniel Ferrer García endured constant threats and harassment. José Daniel Ferrer García has long reported suffering health problems, related to his previous long-term detentions in prison, including, among other things, serious gastric problems, and chronic headaches.