Via The Real Cuba:
"I am a young Cuban woman, mother of an 8 year old child who every day cries in my arms due to the absence of his father, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, my husband.
My husband is an Afro-Cuban who today is languishing in a Cuban jail, trying to survive under infrahuman conditions and suffering cruel and degrading treatment, for dedicating his efforts to fight for the civil rights of our compatriots.
Dr. Darsi Ferrer is a professional, not a criminal as he is described by the Cuban regime, he is a medical graduate, sensitive to the suffering of others and whose only crime has been that, inspired by the example of great men like Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, he has employed non-violent methods of civil disobedience to wake up the conscience of the Cuban people and to demand the respect of the fundamental freedoms and rights for all citizens of Cuba.
The racist regime that has tormented our people for the last 50 years doesn't accept the fact that he is black and that he has been leading an anti-apartheid campaign, put an end to the immoral and illegal discrimination that all Cubans are suffering in their own country, for no other reason than having been born here.
In this XXI Century, foreigners and the elite cast who are in power enjoy all the privileges, while the rest of the Cuban people are prohibited from doing things that would be considered normal in any other country, such as:
- Visiting certain tourist centers; to receive medical attention in exclusive clinics that have adequate resources available; to be free to go in and out of your country; to have free movement anywhere within Cuba; to have your own businesses to help take care of your family; to choose the type of education that we want for our children; to be able to sell what supposedly are our own properties; to have access to the Internet; to have freedom of speech; to be able to meet with friends and associates depending on our own particular interests.
On top of everything else, the State pays its workers pathetic salaries using the national currency and then sells the majority of the products in hard currency, at prices that are completely out of reach of local citizens, adding to the many other manifestations of discrimination and racism.
The Cuban government is trying to silence Darsi and stopping him from trying to help fellow Cubans, and is using its brutal force to accomplish that.
In the last few years we have been harassed, threatened, beaten by mobs under the direct control of Cuba's State Security, kidnapped and arbitrarily arrested.
Darsi was fired from the hospital where he was working as a doctor and now has been in jail since July 21, 2009.
Also, because of our work in favor of fellow Cubans, I have been beaten, arrested, suffered "actos de repudio" where dozens of aggressive individuals have terrorized us in our own home, without any concern for the trauma that they could cause our small son, a boy who was only 5 years old when his life was first threatened.
I am not asking that people ask for the liberation of my husband, we assume all the sacrifices demanded by this fight to make sure that our people can enjoy freedom, justice and democracy.
What I am asking is for all civil rights organizations to support the worthy cause that is being promoted by Dr. Darsi Ferrer, that they extend their hands to the Cuban people and that with their support and solidarity fortify our hopes for a free and democratic Cuba.
Yusnaimi Jorge Soca
Havana, Cuba
October 21, 2009
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