The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation reports the arbitrary detention of JOSE DANIEL FERRER GARCIA, an outstanding pro-democracy activist, at around 11 pm Monday 07/30/2012 in the province of Holguin. He is at present in the hands of the secret political police and until now his whereabouts is unknown.
José Daniel Ferrer is one of the most vigorous and charismatic opposition leaders in Cuba, a former prisoner of conscience and the head of UNION PATRIOTICA CUBANA, an organization maintaining a remarkable level of civic activism in Cuba, particularly in the eastern provinces.
Ferrer Garcia has been a victim of numerous arbitrary detentions since he was released from prison in early 2011 under a precarious “extra-penitentiary leave” and once and again has been the target of true human hunts and even the ransacking of his home, with an end to break his will or to make him renounce his firm pro-democracy militancy.
Our Commission demands the immediate release of JOSE DANIEL FERRER GARCIA and calls upon international human rights NGO’s and the democratic community of nations to ask the Cuban government to put an end to the relentless and illegal harassment of peaceful Cuban dissidents and immediately to inform on Ferrer Garcia’s whereabouts.
Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz
Spokesperson