SOS FOR ALL CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
UNPACU
April 11, 2020

Santiago de Cuba, April 11, 2020. As we all know, in the already too long and deep crisis that Castro-communism has plunged our people into, we now face another very dangerous situation: the Coronavirus pandemic. In the midst of increasing misery and repression, our political prisoners and their families are among those who have the worst time. Our political prisoners and their families are the ones who pay the highest cost in the fight for freedom.

The Castro regime has suspended family visits to prisons, they say, to prevent the Coronavirus from penetrating prisons. An arbitrary and ineffective measure, since while they affect prisoners and their families in this way, the jailers come and go daily and most do not take the necessary measures to avoid contagions. If the Covid-19 spreads through Cuban prisons, the tragedy will be awful. Prisoners survive overcrowded, malnourished and without proper medical attention, making them a group at high risk of death. We alert the international community about the importance of this matter, and the Cuban regime about its grave responsibility.

The regime has suspended visits to prisoners, but still allows family members to deposit, at the prison entrance, various types of food, very restricted and sealed, in plastic or in other containers, with the exception of metal cans, which are prohibited. These sealed foods are increasingly scarce and expensive in the stores of the dictatorship.

We greatly appreciate the help our prisoners receive from exiled patriotic organizations. The reality is that, due to the restrictions imposed due to the Coronavirus and the measures of the dictatorship, this month it has been impossible for those to deliver any aid to political prisoners and their families. In any case, given the current conditions in Cuba, that basic aid would even be insufficient.

Based on the foregoing, we ask every person of good will, who wishes and can, their help to alleviate the critical situation in which our political prisoners and their families are today.

The plan that we have devised to partially solve this serious problem is to request financial aid. There are very few ways to channel aid. From the United States only the Western Union Agency, and some other variant in other countries. Those who wish to give their contribution may collaborate with between ten and one hundred dollars per prisoner and family, according to the possibilities of each one. We know that very difficult moments are faced everywhere. The interested parties can notify us of their will through these 3 ways:

WhatsApp to the number +53 58807751
By private message to my account @jdanielferrer on Twitter
By email to josedanielferrer19700729@gmail.com

When we have your message of the willingness to help, we will send you the name of the prisoner and the family most in need, so that the aid in question can be sent directly to the family member serving the prisoner, through Western Union or another effective way according to each country of origin. The person who sends the aid will then send to us, by one of the channels indicated above, the number or identifier of the transfer. It is necessary to take precautionary measures and use these secure information channels, since the henchmen of the tyranny usually strip money and food destined for political prisoners from the family members who are going to receive them before they reach the prison. For the sake of transparency and the attribution of solidarity credit, we would like to thank each of the solidarity donors publicly, in our twitter account, except those who wish to preserve their anonymity.

After consulting our manager in care for political prisoners, after talking with Cuban Prisoners Defenders and with relatives of prisoners, according to a first analysis, we need to help, as soon as possible, 71 political prisoners, 33 of them from UNPACU, and promoters de Cuba Decide.

Our prisoners need you today more than ever. Thank you.

José Daniel Ferrer García
General Coordinator at UNPACU
Promoter of Cuba Decide
Santiago de Cuba, April 11, 2020