At an event where he was honored for his efforts over decades, José Daniel Ferrer García detailed the Cuban government's repressive tactics to stifle civic opposition, urged ally nations to support the island's prodemocratic movement, and highlighted how activists like himself have managed to "keep alive the flames of resistance."
"We are highly optimistic that as long as we maintain the course, connecting and coordinating intelligently our actions and to the extent that we can maintain support from nations allied with us for moral and political reasons, that we will advance much faster and in a more strategic way to achieve the freedom of the Cuban people," said Ferrer García, who was exiled last month and arrived in Miami.
Ferrer García provided the keynote address for "Cuban Voices: Rights, Reality, and the Rule of Law," a program held Tuesday evening at the Kislak Center at the University of Miami and co-sponsored by Amigos of the Cuban Heritage Collection, the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA), and the University's School of Law in affiliation with the Human Rights in the Americas Symposium.
A panel moderated by Patricia Sánchez Abril, interim dean of the School of Law and professor of business law at the Miami Herbert Business School, provided context and background for the Ferrer García presentation. The panelists outlined challenges faced by civil society on the island, recent legal developments that impact free expression and association, and the international mechanisms at work to protect these rights.
"Those who dare to defend human rights in Cuba face isolation, criminalization, and even death," said Rosa María Payá Acevedo, a founder of Cuba Decide and activist whose father, a celebrated dissident, was murdered in Cuba in 2012.
Payá Acevedo highlighted the challenges that civic organizations face to operate or even exist in Cuba. In particular, she noted the Cuban dictate of "exclusivity criteria," which prohibits the creation of any civic organization that the government deems has similar goals to one that already exists.
"So, if the regime has an organization to defend the rights of puppies, no other organization [related to animal welfare] can be created," said Payá Acevedo. "The minister of justice can deny your request [to create an organization], and you can't defend [or counter the denial] because there is no national registry to even know what organizations exist."
She added that activists in Cuba who dare to mediate or appear before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which has been investigating a petition on rights abuses in Cuba, or other rights-based organizations, "are taking the highest possible risk."
Panelist Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana, a Guatemalan constitutional lawyer and IACHR commissioner assigned to monitor Cuba's compliance these past six years, highlighted the bravery of those on the island who have provided testimony to the commission.
"Despite the painful road of prison, torture, and family separation, the voices from Cuba will make Cuba finally free. Theirs is a fight that has dignity, and perseverance will eventually triumph," said Ralón Orellana. "The commission has the obligation to use all the instruments at our disposal to prevent that the situation in Cuba [of repressive tactics] be normalized or perpetuated."
Aldo Leiva, an attorney and member of CABA, highlighted that while lawyers are supposed to fight to protect the rule of law, in Cuba the government uses the law to protect itself from the people by locking them up and silencing them in other ways.
"This is the kind of regime that we're working against. On the island, they talk about public disorder and disrespect—but those words mean nothing to us here because they have the full force of a corrupt regime that uses those words to place people in solitary confinement without a fair trial and without lawyers prepared to represent them," Leiva said.
CABA has put a team together to represent these cases to the IACHR and other bodies. The fact that Cuba was one of the countries in 1948 that signed the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man provides CABA the legal authority to file with the commission and demand a reply, he noted.
"We are not the voices—we are the amplifiers for the true voices of Cuba—and it's so important to one day have an event like this in Cuba with full freedom," said Leiva.
While he wasn't born in Cuba, Leiva said, like so many who were and left, he feels a strong connection.
"It's inevitable for Cuba to be free. It's our destiny," he said. "Those who leave never forget those they leave behind. It's definitely a 'we.'"
In her remarks, Candice Balmori, attorney at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman and CABA director, referenced a short film shown at the program opening, a compilation of interview excerpts from Cuban activists providing testimony to the multitude of ways that the Cuban government suffocates dissent.
The video, she said, highlighted two spaces within Cuban civil society—physical space and the new area of digital space—where freedom of expression and association are highly regulated by the government. New laws have given the government increased power to sanction "propaganda against constitutional order." Posting on social media platforms can incur prison sentences of from three to eight years, Balmori pointed out.
Charles Eckman, dean of University Libraries, welcomed guests and presented the Libraries Centennial Medal to members of the Amigos of the Cuban Heritage Collection for "spearheading the testimony of the world history project and the preservation of Cuban memory."
The evening program highlighted the Cuban Heritage Collection's role in safeguarding testimonies, stories, and cultural expressions that reflect the resilience and realities of the Cuban people, both on the island and in exile.
In his presentation, keynote Ferrer García graphically recounted the abuse and torture he suffered while imprisoned repeatedly, once for eight years. All prisoners in Cuba, he said, endure horrific conditions, and the families of political prisoners are often harassed and targeted as well, prompting them to squelch their dissent.
"Yet this does not mean that the regime has achieved its purpose. It's the resistance of those inside and outside the prisons that is the main depiction of the tyranny," he said. "As [Mahatma] Gandhi once said: 'They can kill us, torture us, and break our bones, but they won't silence us.' They will not stop us from fighting for a better Cuba."
