The Cuban political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer condemned this week the Attack on the Square of the Three Powers from Brazil by supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. He also criticized the current President Lula da Silva for his alliance with the “undemocratic” regime in Havana.
“I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent actions that have recently taken place in Brazil against democratic institutions,” Ferrer said in an audio recording recorded Monday at the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba.
On January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress headquarters to protest Lula da Silva’s victory in the 2022 general election and attempted to enter the Planalto Palace while demanding intervention by the Brazilian army.
“The fact that the perpetrators of these anti-democratic actions are directed against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is a close friend of the Castro regime – the most anti-democratic on the continent – and therefore an accomplice to the oppression and misery my people are experiencing , cannot make me contradict my principles: I am and always will be for democracy and human rights, and I will always condemn anti-democratic actions, whether from the far left or from the far right,” Ferrer said.
The leader of the opposition Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) stressed that “Lula expressed a beautiful phrase in the face of the violence in his country: “Democracy always”.
#Cuba @jdanielferrer Prisoner of Conscience/Hero in the Fight for 🇨🇺 Freedom
Despite being tortured, he retains the power to inspire us all to continue this fight
👉Audio: Mar Verde Prison/Santiago de Cuba
January 16, 2023@NelvaIsmarays @anabelkisfg @SenRickScott pic.twitter.com/rTlxVL02Qf– Michael Lima Cuadra (@ngotranslations) January 17, 2023
But Ferrer immediately lamented “that the current Brazilian president believes that Cubans are different, of a different species, and that we don’t deserve to live in a democracy, that we don’t have the right to political pluralism, to freedom of expression and association have , press, religion and peaceful demonstration; that we can live under a nefarious supremacist party, that we are not worthy of living under a genuine rule of law with a genuine separation of state powers, that we are not entitled to free and competitive elections”.
The opponent and political prisoner said he “very much agreed with Lula’s formulation. I like it for Brazil, Peru, Bolivia but also for Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. I like it for the whole continent. I like it for North Korea, for Saudi Arabia and Eritrea. I like it for the whole planet”.
José Daniel Ferrer, classified as a “political prisoner” by Amnesty International, was arrested on July 11, 2021 as he was preparing to take part in the anti-government demonstrations that day. After his arrest, a sentence of four years and six months imposed in 2020 was overturned.
Ferrer was also one of the 75 Cuban Black Spring political prisoners in 2003. His family has repeatedly denounced “torture” and violations of his rights in prison.