José Daniel Ferrer Denounces Stone Throwing at His House

José Daniel Ferrer, human rights defender and leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba denounced on January 31, 2021 that thugs at the service of the State Security police threw rocks at this home where he lives with his wife Nelva Ortega and minor children, one of which is a toddler. Ferrer´s house (which is also de headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Cuba/UNPACU) has been under police siege for the past six months. Most recently, the regime has attempted to prevent UNPACU from serving food the most vulnerable sectors of the population. This is one the organization’s leading social tasks.

José Daniel Ferrer is a peaceful pro democracy activist who has been the target of government repression since 1992. In 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but after he was recognized as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International and as a result of an international campaign for his release, he was given extrajudicial license in 2011. More recently, from October 1 2019 to April 3, 2020 he was imprisoned and subjected to physical and psychological tortures. He was prosecuted under fabricated charges in a trial considered as ¨shameful¨ by Amnesty International and subjected to a slander campaign on the state control media.

The violent government practice of throwing eggs at Cubans who left the country goes back to the 1980 Mariel exodus. More recently, paramilitary groups in Venezuela known as ¨Colectivos¨have been known to throw rocks at members of the opposition.

Democratic Spaces denounces the barbaric practice of throwing stones at those who think different in Cuba. Ideas are debated with ideas, not confronted with violence.