The opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer revealed the last wish requested by Miguel Sigler Amaya, a former Cuban political prisoner, who passed away this Tuesday in Miami after a long illness.
Ferrer confirmed Amaya's death in a video on Facebook, and requested assistance to fulfill her last wishes.
"I just received some heartbreaking news," said Ferrer at the beginning of the nearly seven-minute video. "A great man has passed away, and he had one final wish." This wish was to be laid to rest in a funeral home on Calle 8 in Miami, near the restaurant La Carreta, with a "Cuban-style" funeral, as recounted by the leader of UNPACU.
Ferrer described the physical decline his companion experienced in his final months: more than five months in bed, two open-heart surgeries, calcified arteries, and morphine every four hours without real relief from the pain.
"José Daniel, I am going to die," Sigler Amaya told him approximately a month before his death, as Ferrer recounted in the video.
A native of Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas, Miguel Sigler Amaya was a well-known opponent of the Cuban regime, who experienced repression and imprisonment for his political beliefs.
He was a member of a family that became a symbol of resistance for their fight against the Castro government. His mother, Gloria Amaya, was active in the Damas de Blanco, and his siblings, Ariel, Guido, and Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya, were also retaliated against and imprisoned simultaneously; the first two were arrested in 2003 during the Black Spring.
Ariel Sigler Amaya arrived in the United States on a humanitarian visa after becoming paralyzed in prison, following Cuba granting him exit permission in 2010. Guido was released in Cuba in February 2011.
On his part, Miguel left Cuba on October 5, 2005 and settled in south Florida, where he worked as a pizza delivery driver and later as a bus driver for a healthcare assistance chain. He never abandoned the opposition cause. His wife, Josefa López, is a Dama de Blanco and an activist.
In October 2025, Sigler Amaya was hospitalized at the JFK Medical Center in West Palm Beach for high-risk vascular surgery, due to the physical decline accumulated during his incarceration.
Ferrer visited Sigler Amaya in the hospital, having just arrived in exile on the same date, and maintained close contact with him until the end.
"Miguel Sigler Amaya has passed away, a great man, a great Cuban, from Pedro Betancourt in Matanzas," declared Ferrer. In the video, he also paid tribute to the family as a whole: "I feel more pride for the Sigler Amaya family because they are three," he said, referring to the three brothers who endured imprisonment under the regime.
To cover the funeral expenses, Ferrer requested donations at the number +1 305 970 8858. The death of Sigler Amaya occurs at a time when the Cuban exile community in Miami continues to receive those who have paid with years of imprisonment and their health the price of opposing the dictatorship, arriving in exile with bodies marked by confinement and the neglect of the Cuban prison system.
Ferrer, sentenced to 25 years in the same raid of 2003 and whose brother Luis Enrique received 28 years in prison, ended his message with a promise: Miguel Sigler Amaya's last wish will be fulfilled.
Since his arrival in exile, Ferrer has launched a network of economic support in Miami for Cubans who, like Sigler Amaya, arrived in exile with their health shattered by years of repression.
Filed under: