{"id":7046,"date":"2020-01-27T07:49:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T12:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7046"},"modified":"2020-01-27T07:49:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T12:49:46","slug":"u-s-and-cuba-spar-over-jailed-dissident-but-is-jose-daniel-ferrer-really-a-political-prisoner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7046","title":{"rendered":"U.S. and Cuba Spar Over Jailed Dissident \u2013 but Is Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer Really a Political Prisoner?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer was a US ally in Cuba during the Obama-era restoration of diplomatic and economic ties with the Island. Sven Creutzmann\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cuba and the United States are in dispute over the prolonged detention of a Cuban dissident.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer, head of an opposition group called Patriotic Union of Cuba, has been jailed since Oct. 1 on unspecified charges. Ferrer was one of the 75 dissidents<\/a> arrested in 2003 during a nationwide crackdown in Cuba known as the Black Spring. He founded the Patriotic Union after his release in 2011.<\/p>\n

The State Department<\/a> has denounced Ferrer\u2019s arrest<\/a>, and the European Union passed a resolution<\/a> urging his immediate and unconditional release. Amnesty International and other human rights groups say Ferrer, who went months without seeing a judge, was denied the presumption of innocence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cuba calls Ferrer, whose organization receives funding from the State Department, a \u201cpaid agent working in the service of the United States<\/a>.\u201d He faces nine years in prison.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Up to here, the Ferrer case sounds like the latest chapter in a long history<\/a> of disagreements over human rights<\/a> between the U.S. and Cuba.<\/p>\n

But Ferrer, it turns out, may not be the typical political prisoner. According to colleagues and Cuba\u2019s official newspaper Granma<\/a>, Ferrer was not arrested for his activism but rather for the alleged kidnapping and assault of a former Patriotic Union member.<\/p>\n

Obama, Trump and Cuba<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever since the 1959 Cuban Revolution established communist rule on this Caribbean island, the U.S. has criticized Cuba for its lack of freedom of expression, right to assembly and legal due process.<\/p>\n

Cuba accuses the United States of trying to destabilize its government<\/a> through outright aggression, covert operations<\/a>, an economic embargo<\/a> and the financing of dissident groups.<\/p>\n

U.S.-Cuba relations improved markedly with the reestablishment of diplomatic and some economic ties under President Barack Obama<\/a>. But they have turned icy again under Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\n
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President Donald Trump shows the signed executive order restoring economic sanctions on Cuba, June 16, 2017. AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Catering to Florida\u2019s conservative Cuban American community<\/a> \u2013 a key Republican base in the 2020 election \u2013 the Trump administration has undone nearly all Obama-era reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S.-Cuba relations may be stuck in the past, but Cuba has changed. LGBTQ people, previously harassed, are protected by new laws<\/a>. Internet access, once a rarity, is accessible today \u2013 if quite pricey \u2013 even via a 3G mobile network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The country also has a president who\u2019s not related to Fidel Castro<\/a>, a generation of entrepreneurs<\/a> that blossomed under Raul Castro\u2019s 2008 economic liberalization program and a new constitution<\/a>. As of late 2019, Cubans may now own private property<\/a> and assemble with more legal guarantees.<\/p>\n

Nor is Cuban civil society today simply \u201cthe opposition.\u201d As my 2019 documentary \u201cRethinking Cuban Civil Society<\/a>\u201d demonstrates, it includes a variety of people, groups and even government agencies that, with varying degrees of autonomy and vigor, advocate<\/a> for \u2013 and sometimes achieve \u2013 change.<\/p>\n

The significant recent political and social reforms are largely a result of their efforts, coupled with the slow evolution of Cuba\u2019s own political process under new leadership.<\/p>\n

Challenges for Cuba<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, when it comes to political rights and freedom of expression, Cuba remains below international standards<\/a>. According to Human Rights Watch, many people are still arbitrarily detained by Cuban police each year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Independent journalists also face daily pressures<\/a>. Cuba Posible<\/a>, a sometimes critical digital magazine founded in 2014 \u201cnot from the perspective of confrontation, but rather conciliation,\u201d closed last year after years of government harassment, pressure and persecution.<\/p>\n

And the 2017 firing of a prominent law professor at the University of Oriente<\/a> for publishing on \u201cunofficial\u201d leftist websites<\/a> recalls the \u201cgray period\u201d of the 1960s and 1970s, when Cuban intellectuals were routinely ostracized and jailed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Such incidents inform the international view that Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer is the victim of a repressive state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
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Activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, far left, at a meeting with President Barack Obama at the US Embassy, in Havana, Cuba, March 22, 2016. AP Photo\/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Patriotic Union vs. Ferrer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent news, however, reveals that the situation is more complicated.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s official newspaper Granma<\/a> says Ferrer was arrested because a colleague<\/a> at the Patriotic Union accused him of kidnapping and assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook Live stream<\/a> posted by one of Patriotic Union\u2019s former members, Sergio Garc\u00eda Gonz\u00e1lez, the dissident says that after a professional disagreement Ferrer trapped him \u201call night long\u201d and punched him.<\/p>\n

The story<\/a> ran on the Cuban news channel Noticiero Estelar on Nov. 27, 2019, nearly two months into Ferrer\u2019s incarceration. That segment also featured a video, filmed on hidden camera, which showed Ferrer alone in a prison office beating his head violently against a table. Seconds later, when a man enters the room, Ferrer says that he was beaten by prison officials.<\/p>\n

Another negative account of Ferrer came to light<\/a> more recently. In a video posted online on Dec. 7, 2019, a former Patriotic Union member named Meleidys G\u00f3mez accuses Ferrer and his brother of financial fraud, saying they used the organization\u2019s U.S. funding for personal purposes.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Patriotic Union received US$99,431 from the State Department<\/a> for the \u201cadvancement of democracy and human rights,\u201d according to State Department budgets.<\/p>\n

It is one of many Cuban dissident groups that receive substantial U.S. funding<\/a>. Ferrer\u2019s arrest has renewed debate on the island about the U.S. government\u2019s continued financing<\/a> of pro-democracy programs in Cuba<\/a>, which costs U.S. taxpayers around $20 millions annually. As of today, more than $200 million<\/a> has been spent on regime change programs as mandated by Congress without any success.<\/p>\n

Old assumptions, new reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

The allegations against Ferrer are unconfirmed. As the Cuban investigative news site El Estornudo suggests, both the lack of a free press in Cuba and Ferrer\u2019s spurious credibility make it hard to get to the bottom of this confusing case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then there is impropriety of secretly filming a prisoner and leaking the footage to the media \u2013 one of the irregularities<\/a> that clearly compromise Cuban criminal justice<\/a> proceedings against Ferrer.<\/p>\n

But since the allegations against Ferrer came to light, other Patriotic Union members have come forward to assert<\/a> that they were aware of both Ferrer\u2019s violent personality and his financial malfeasance. Ferrer himself previously acknowledged hitting a different Patriotic Union member, in 2017, as shown in a video<\/a> published last December by another member of the organization.<\/p>\n

Together, these details suggest that international calls for the \u201cimmediate and unconditional<\/a>\u201d release of this \u201cCuban political prisoner\u201d were premature. They indicate a reaction premised on historic reflex rather than known facts.<\/p>\n

In Cuba, not every prisoner who is political is a political prisoner.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Isabel Alfonso<\/a>, Professor of Spanish, St. Joseph’s College of New York<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuba and the United States are in dispute over the prolonged detention of a Cuban dissident. Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer, head of an opposition group called Patriotic Union of Cuba, has been jailed since Oct. 1 on unspecified charges. Ferrer was one of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 during a nationwide crackdown in Cuba known…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/311454\/original\/file-20200122-117958-npodup.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"The Changing Face of Burkina Faso\u2019s Terrorist U.S. and Cuba Spar Over Jailed Dissident \u2013 but Is Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer Really a Political Prisoner?","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7048,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046\/revisions\/7048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}