CUBAN GOVT DETAINS DISSIDENT DOCTOR DARSI FERRER

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 017684

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/01/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN GOVT DETAINS DISSIDENT DOCTOR DARSI FERRER

REF: HAVANA 16867 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: Around 50 Cuban State Security officers took
dissident doctor Darsi Ferrer into custody September 1 and
held him at a Havana police station, where, according to his
wife, Yusnaimy Jorge, he refused to sign an official warning.
The Government accused him of putting up "Cambio" ("Change")
stickers at various locations, an accurate accusation. After
taking Ferrer into custody at his house, security forces
allegedly turned on the gas before closing the door and
locking Ferrer's five-year-old son inside. A relative of the
boy later rescued him; he was not injured. Ferrer spent the
night at a Havana police station before being freed at 8 am
and walking home barefoot and shirtless. At 1 pm, after
dropping Yusnaimy off at USINT for a visit to an internet
center, Ferrer was detained by police, put in a police
cruiser and driven away. Other dissidents who watched the
detention said it was not violent. Ferrer's whereabouts are
currently unknown. Yusnaimy says Ferrer has not scrapped his
plan to carry out a 19-person demonstration September 11 or
12, discributing copies of Ferrer's appeal for a plebiscite
on the transfer of power. End Summary.


2. (C) Dissident Darsi Ferrer, who called on Cubans to defy
the Government shortly after the regime announced the power
transfer to Raul Castro, was detained by State Security
September 1 at his Havana home. His five-year-old son was
also at home when around 50 State Security officers, some
dressed as ordinary police officers and others as civilians,
arrived at the scene shortly after midnight and pounded on
the front door with pistol butts. According to neighbors
quoted by Yusnaimy, Ferrer, shirtless, opened the door and
was immediately taken into custody. Ferrer allegedly asked
that a relative be summoned to care for the boy, but
according to Yusnaimy, the officers refused, then turned on
the gas and closed the door, locking it with the boy still
inside. Neighbors quickly tracked down Yusnaimy (who is
separated from Ferrer and lives elsewhere in Havana),who
returned to find her son all right.


3. (C) Not much is known about Ferrer's treatment overnight
at a police station in Havana's Lawton neighborhood, other
than he was not physically mistreated and refused to sign an
"official warning," which states, among other things, that he
promises to abide by all laws and rules. Quoting her
husband, Yusnaimy said pedestrians looked at Ferrer as a
madman as he made a long walk home from the police station,
still shirtless and barefoot.


4. (C) At around 1 pm, Ferrer accompanied Yusnaimy to USINT,
where she had an appointment to visit one of our internet
centers. Shortly after she went inside, dissident Daniel
Mesa and another human rights activist saw police stop
Ferrer, ask for his ID, then take him into custody. He
entered one of two nearby police cars and was driven away.

COMMENT
--------------


5. (C) That the Cuban Government waited as long as it did to
detain Darsi Ferrer is surprising; perhaps it reflected
political instability in the wake of Fidel's temporary
handover of power to Raul. Ferrer enjoys popularity in his
neighborhood but support will count for nothing if Ferrer is
still held on September 11 or 12, when he hopes to
demonstrate in Havana for a referendum on the non-democratic
transfer of power. Ferrer's "crime" is similar to those
committed by currently imprisoned pro-democracy activists; he
could be sentenced to upwards of 20 years.
PARMLY