The Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, met during his recent visit to Miami with two of the most prominent figures of the Cuban opposition: Rosa María Payá and José Daniel Ferrer, in meetings that the U.S. diplomatic mission shared through its official account on X on Friday.
Hammer described Payá as someone who "is always fighting for human rights in Cuba and a better future for the Cuban people," and he described the meeting as a pleasure. In a second message dedicated to Ferrer, he wrote: "A pleasure to meet José Daniel in Miami. Always focused on how a better future for the Cuban people can be achieved."
The meetings take place days after a week of intense diplomatic activity concerning Cuba at the UN headquarters in New York.
Ferrer, founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and former political prisoner exiled in Miami since October 2025, had participated in the General Assembly debate on the annual resolution against the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
He also participated in the forum "Cuba Libre: The Oppression That Havana Hides," organized by the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, on October 20, with the aim of having diplomats hear directly from former political prisoners and experts about the regime's repressive practices.
The result of the vote on October 28 was the most unfavorable for Havana since it began presenting that resolution in 1992: 130 countries supported the text, 17 voted against, and 25 abstained, compared to the 165 votes in favor it received in 2025.
Payá, a commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) and a promoter of the Cuba Decide platform, publicly thanked Waltz for his intervention at the General Assembly and emphasized the regional shift: "For the first time in decades, a majority of Ibero-America refused to vote alongside Havana at the UN. Our region stands with the Cuban people, not with the dictatorship that imprisons them and subjects them to hunger."
This is not the first time Hammer has met with both opposition leaders in Miami. In early 2026, he had already held a similar meeting with Payá and Ferrer where they discussed the situation of political prisoners in Cuba and the challenges faced by their families.
Meetings are part of a networking agenda that Hammer maintains with both the opposition in exile and within the island, where in August he visited families of political prisoners from the 11J, defying the regime's restrictions, which on several occasions has organized acts of repudiation against the diplomat.
Hammer also met in Miami with General Francis L. Donovan, the head of U.S. Southern Command, in a context of increasing pressure from Washington on the Cuban regime.
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