The Cuban opposition leader and former political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer appeared this Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament to denounce the crisis in Cuba and demand a stronger international response to the Havana regime.
The appearance takes place as part of a European tour by Ferrer seeking support that began last Saturday with his arrival in Madrid and will take him to more than ten countries over approximately a month.
Before the MEPs, Ferrer began his speech with a direct thanks to the institution: "Without your solidarity, it would have been difficult for me to emerge alive from the prisons of the communist regime."
The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) was unequivocal in his assessment: «Cuba is experiencing the worst crisis in its modern history. We are not only still under a harsh dictatorship that denies Cubans the enjoyment of universally recognized rights».
He denounced that "the one-party regime brutally represses and incarcerates in hellish prisons those who protest against oppression, extreme misery, the energy crisis, food shortages, health issues, transportation, housing, and other serious problems that affect the majority of Cubans on a daily basis."
Ferrer dedicated part of his speech to describing the conditions within Cuban correctional facilities, where he reported that there are political prisoners and thousands of common inmates suffering from "extreme hunger, severe malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, parasitism, infectious diseases, lack of proper medical care, shortages of medication and potable water, beatings, physical and psychological torture, and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment."
As an emblematic example, he cited the case of Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, a political prisoner of the 11J released on April 12 after serving his entire sentence: "He emerged from a communist prison like those prisoners who survived in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Skin over bone."
Díaz Rodríguez, originally from Cárdenas, Matanzas, lost between 25 and 50 kilograms during his imprisonment at the Kilo 5 and a half prison in Pinar del Río, where he suffered from thyroid cancer without adequate medical attention, hepatitis B, and severe anemia.
His case transcended borders when Republican Senator Rick Scott displayed his photos before the Senate of the United States on April 29 during a debate about Cuba.
The session in the Eurochamber also featured the participation of Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and rapporteur for Cuba, who presented on the deterioration of fundamental freedoms on the island and the systematic pattern of human rights violations.
Ferrer demanded that the European Union end the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba and apply sanctions under the European Magnitsky Act against those responsible for human rights violations on the island.
The day before his public appearance, Ferrer had already met with several MEPs in Brussels to present the situation in Cuba and gather support for the "Cuban Liberation Agreement," a three-phase democratic transition plan signed on March 2 in Miami by more than 30 exile organizations.
Ferrer was exiled from Cuba in October 2025, along with his wife and children, after months of hunger strike in prison to denounce torture and inhumane conditions. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience subjected to torture during that last imprisonment.
After Brussels, Ferrer has scheduled visits to Poland, Sweden, and other European countries, with the aim of consolidating a network of international pressure that, in his words before the European Parliament, supports "a bloc of nations that stands at the forefront of the global defense of human rights."
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