Cuba’s highest court has ordered two prominent dissidents to be taken back into custody on the basis that both had separately violated the terms of their parole.
On Tuesday, the Tribunal Supremo Popular – sometimes translated as the People’s Supreme Court – authorised the arrests of Jose Daniel Ferrer and Felix Navarro.
“In addition to failing to comply with the terms of their parole, [Ferrer and Navarro] are people who publicly call for disorder and disrespect for authorities in their social and online environments and maintain public ties with the head of the United States embassy,” said Maricela Sosa, the court’s vice president.
Both men had been released earlier this year as part of a deal mediated by the late Pope Francis and the Catholic Church. As part of the agreement, Democrat Joe Biden, the outgoing United States president, briefly removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Biden’s decision was quickly reversed as Republican Donald Trump replaced him as president on January 20. The very next day, Trump ordered Cuba to be restored to the list, which restricts foreign assistance, defence sales and other financial interactions with designated countries.
Still, by March, Cuba had announced it had completed its end of the bargain, releasing a total of 553 people. While critics of the Cuban government have called them “political prisoners”, Havana maintained that the released people represented “diverse crimes”.
On Tuesday, the US Department of State issued a statement condemning the latest arrests, which also reportedly swept up Ferrer’s wife and child.
“The U.S. strongly condemns the brutal treatment and unjust detention of Cuban patriots [Ferrer], his wife and son, as well as Felix Navarro and several other pro-democracy activists,” it said in a social media post.
It added that the US Embassy in Havana “will continue meeting with Cubans who stand up for their fundamental rights and freedoms”.
One of the most prominent critics of the prisoner release was Ferrer himself. A fisherman and founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Ferrer has advocated for democratic reforms on the island, leading to clashes with Havana’s community government.
In an interview with The New York Times following his release in January, Ferrer framed the Vatican-brokered deal as a publicity stunt for the Cuban government.
“In a gesture of supposed good will, they free a number of people who should never have been jailed, and then they want in exchange for that for the Church and the American government to make concessions,” Ferrer said.
“They are applauded, and the world sees that they are so generous.”
Ferrer had publicly refused to accept the conditions of his release, including mandatory court appearances, on the basis that he should have never been imprisoned in the first place.
Bo