Mike Hammer, head of mission at the United States Embassy in Cuba, in Santa Clara, in a meeting rich in political symbolism that comes just two weeks after Fariñas was detained by Cuban authorities.
"The ambassador friend Mike Hammer was accompanied by two other diplomatic officials from the Embassy of the United States of America in Havana, whom we received under a daily and ordinary blackout, starting at 2:04 am. Despite the well-known material precariousness in which we survive, amid a Cuban society governed by Castro-communism, we were able to describe the conditions of material poverty in which Cubans function," reads a statement from the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (FANTU) on Facebook.
The meeting takes place at a time of high diplomatic activity for the U.S. official. Just three days earlier, Hammer had appeared before the United States Congress in Washington D.C. to report on the situation in Cuba and the progress of a $100 million humanitarian aid package that will be distributed through Caritas Cuba and parish networks, without the regime's involvement.
Fariñas, leader of the United Antitotalitarian Forum (FANTU) and winner of the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, was detained on August 31 when he appeared at the Third Station of the National Revolutionary Police in Santa Clara to show solidarity with the political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo. The authorities held him for 24 hours on charges of "public disorder."
According to the independent media Click-Cuba, Fariñas even requested to be locked up with García Lorenzo, in a gesture of solidarity that led to his own detention.
Hammer's visit to Villa Clara is not the first. In April 2025, the head of mission toured the province and met with Fariñas at the FANTU headquarters, accompanied by Leslie Núñez Goodman, head of Public Diplomacy at the embassy. That meeting was described as an "open and satisfactory exchange of opinions" in which the dissident presented the forum's positions on possible ways to resolve the Cuban crisis. Hammer then described it as "an honor" to have met with Fariñas and to have discussed his work in defense of human rights.
That visit in 2025 also included meetings with families of political prisoners, dissidents, and members of the Ladies in White in the region.
The direct contact strategy with the opposition that Hammer has maintained throughout 2025 and 2026 has irritated the Cuban regime. The State Security even announced in January 2026 that it would prevent new meetings between the diplomat and opposition figures, although with seemingly no success.
The new meeting in Santa Clara takes place in a context of sustained repression: Cuba recorded 1,327 political prisoners by the end of August 2026, according to data collected by human rights organizations.
The $100 million humanitarian aid package that Hammer defended before Congress will be channeled, according to the embassy, "through trusted organizations," bypassing the Cuban government. The first shipments have already begun arriving in various locations on the island, including the province of Mayabeque.
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