A recent letter from Cuban prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer has managed to make its way out of a Castro gulag, where Ferrer details the horrors and suffering imposed on him and his fellow political prisoners. In the letter, the leader of the opposition group the Patriotic Union of Cuba details the lack of food, medical care, and the horrid conditions political prisoners are experiencing, which he compares to conditions at a Nazi concentration camp. As for himself, Ferrer describes how he is being held in extreme isolation where he feels “the regime has buried me alive.”
Here is the text of the letter translated and posted by Democratic Spaces:
JOSÉ DANIEL FERRER
Letter from Mar Verde Prison, Santiago de Cuba – September 9, 2024
Champ, I received your note. I need you to do everything possible to make sure this letter reaches my wife and my sister, Ana Belkis.
Nelva, if you need anything for grandmother’s care, you can take it from the resources in my bag, especially if nothing arrives by October. If necessary, do so. I pray to God for her health and the health of the whole family. I sincerely hope she gets better.
The following is to be shared on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and sent to everyone:
Political prisoners Aníbal Ribeaux and lan Games are surviving under very difficult conditions in this prison. They need more solidarity and material support for food, medicine, and personal hygiene products. Aníbal is suffering from serious hemorrhoids and has not received the necessary medical attention.
lan sleeps on the floor, goes hungry, and faces numerous other serious daily challenges.
Other political prisoners, particularly those from July 11, 2024, are in even worse conditions. Some are sick, and many are malnourished, without any help. The food provided to the prisoners — what we receive in this prison and others — compares to what the victims of Nazi concentration camps received. Many inmates are severely underweight.
I have seen them become extremely thin.
Hygiene is terrible for hundreds of prisoners due to the lack of necessary supplies like soap and toothpaste. Many are suffering from bedbug infestations and scabies. Most of the time, the water is of very poor quality, unfit for human consumption. Personally, I have not been affected by the bedbugs so far, and my family and my comrades ensure that I receive the necessary food, water, and medicine to maintain a relatively favorable state of health compared to the majority of the prison population. I am deeply grateful to my family, my comrades, and friends for their support, solidarity, efforts, and sacrifices.
However, there are others who need much more help. I wish I could share my food and resources with my more needy brothers, but my extreme isolation and the surveillance on me prevent me from sending anything to anyone in this prison. No prisoner is allowed to approach or speak to me. Even the guards are forbidden from talking to me. There are surveillance cameras and listening devices, as well as informant inmates. I am in the most extreme isolation known in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century. I have been without family visits or telephone communication for over a year and six months. The dictatorship has buried me alive; they want to silence me at all costs. That is why they don’t listen to my voice, why they don’t receive my opinions, my reasoning, or my denunciations of what is happening in this hell.
I have made several attempts to send out my writings. I don’t know if any of them have succeeded, but I hope this one reaches you.