September 9, 2024

Champion, I received your note, and I need you to do everything possible to ensure that this letter reaches my wife and sister Ana Belkis.  

Nelva, you can take whatever you need from my resources for the care of Grandma, as if you do not come in October, if necessary. I pray to God for her health and for the whole family. I wish for her to get better.

The following is intended for publication on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and to send to everyone. Political prisoners Aníbal Ribeaux and Ian Games are surviving under very difficult conditions in this prison. They need a little more solidarity and material support for food, medicine, and personal hygiene products. Aníbal is suffering from serious hemorrhoid problems and has not received the necessary medical attention.  

Ian sleeps on the floor and faces hunger, among other serious problems they encounter daily. Other political prisoners from July 11, 2024, are in even worse conditions. Without any help, some are ill, and others are malnourished. The food we receive in this prison and others rivals what victims of Nazi concentration camps received. Many inmates are underweight; I have seen them extremely thin.  

Hygiene for hundreds is terrible due to the lack of necessary products such as soap and toothpaste. Bedbugs affect many, as does scabies. Most of the time, the water is of very poor quality for human consumption. Personally, I have not yet been affected by bedbugs, and my family and fellow activists ensure that food, water, and necessary medicines are reaching me to maintain a certain favorable state of health compared to most of the prison population. I am very grateful to family members, fellow activists, and friends for their support, solidarity, efforts, and sacrifices. But there are others who need a little more help. I wish I could share my food and resources with my more needy brothers, but my extreme isolation and surveillance do not allow me to send anything to anyone in the prison. No inmate is allowed to approach or speak with me. Even the guards are prohibited from talking to me; there are surveillance cameras and listening devices. I find myself in the most extreme isolation known in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century. I have been without family visits and telephone communication for over a year and a half. The dictatorship has buried me alive; they want to silence me at all costs, which is why none listen to my voice, my opinions, my reasons, or my denunciations about what is happening in this hell. I have made several attempts to send my writings; I do not know if any have succeeded, but I hope this one reaches to you all. José Daniel Ferrer García never surrenders; Daniel Ferrer García is and will die a staunch defender of freedom, democracy, human rights, justice, and fundamental values: independence of state powers, freedoms of expression, press, association, peaceful assembly, market economy, and social justice.  

A cause or struggle that does not adequately support political prisoners does not advance or succeed. Political prisoners and their families who suffer the worst repression and harassment for staying firm need political support, spiritual companionship, and material help for food, medicine, and hygiene products. The struggle, no matter how just or legitimate, is doomed to failure without brotherhood, without true and effective solidarity. Aníbal, Ian, and other political prisoners in this and other prisons need more support, more food, news, and advice; they and their families do. Communication, words of encouragement, and timely advice can make a difference.  

Despite my isolation and lack of information from the outside, I dare to assert that we have not improved much in this area and that we may have even worsened; I hope I am wrong. But when so many flee from terror and horror, those who remain suffer severe consequences. The dictatorship applauds and facilitates certain things for those who abandon or betray and targets those who do not surrender. My solidarity with Ukraine, with the opposition and the persecuted in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, and around the world. Thank you to all who care and are very supportive. Long live a free Cuba!  

José Daniel Ferrer García.