Nelva Ortega, the wife of Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, demonstrated on October 4th at six thirty in the rain outside the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba, where her husband is serving his sentence, after receiving a letter from him in which he assured her that he had not received the previous letters sent by his family and that if he continued to have no news from them, he would not accept the food that was being sent to him and would once again initiate a hunger strike.
"Imagine the concern that overwhelmed us: We couldn't leave without any response. We had run out of food, and there was no transportation at that hour. Lieutenant Colonel Ortiz, head of internal order, was the one who received the bag, and he sent a letter written by my husband, at 4:57 PM, in response to the one we wrote that day. Without a doubt, they continue to demonstrate the blackmail and manipulation of my husband's situation. In the note, he expresses his love and concern for the family; his appreciation and gratitude to the European Union and to all the supportive friends worried about his cause, and that the Sakharov Prize would be great."
According to Ortega, the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Monsignor Dionisio García, visited José Daniel Ferrer in September, and he mentioned that for more than a month he has been experiencing "a strong pain in the right arm, indicating a tear in the triceps," which causes him movement limitations and forces him to write with difficulty and slowly.
Nelva Ortega also states that the archbishop has visited Ferrer on four occasions and denounces the interception of the phone calls she had when speaking with her husband. "Since we saw him with family on March 7, 2023, only five occasions have we received proof of life," said the wife of the Cuban opposition leader, lamenting that the young child they have together has not seen his father since June 2023.
"It has been very hard because it has not only affected school, making him sad and distracted after the rejections of the visits, despite being very intelligent. It has also impacted his health. He has started wetting the bed again after the last visit in September when he saw the repressive officials, the head of the prison, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Pinera Guerra, and Major Julio Fonseca, who were the ones who beat my husband on December 9, 2022," Ortega points out.
Last Friday, Nelva Ortega went to Mar Verde prison, accompanied by her five-year-old son Daniel José Ferrer and her stepdaughter, Fátima Victoria Ferrer, with the intention of seeing her husband during the scheduled family visit, and, as CiberCuba reported, they were once again denied that right.
"They only accepted the deposit of the basket with food and hygiene products because of their convictions and patriotism," Ortega noted in an audio that this portal has accessed.
"They have not been satisfied with depriving him of his freedom since his unjust, arbitrary, and violent detention on July 11, 2021, to prevent him from joining and participating in the massive protests that took place across the Island and of his kidnapping in the same prison on August 14 of that year," recalled the wife of the opposition leader.
Ortega adds that her husband is confined in a punishment cell "technologically prepared to torture him; isolated from the penal community and with very limited access to the outside world, even to take the sun. Under inhumane, cruel, deplorable, and degrading conditions; being a victim of mistreatment and violence, both physical and psychological, as well as defamation in the regime's official media without being given the right to defend himself."
As she has been doing month after month, Nelva Ortega has once again denounced that her husband does not have access to adequate food; he drinks non-potable water that barely suffices, lacks medical and dental care, and lives "with only the company of mosquitoes." She also reiterated that they are killing him alive.
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