"We're going to make you disappear like we did to Ferrer."

By Camila Acosta

“We are going to make you disappear like we did to Ferrer,” denounces former Cuban political prisoner.

HAVANA, Cuba (CUBANET) – “We are going to make you disappear like we did to Ferrer,” was the threat from Cuban State Security (SE) to former political prisoner Adel Ramón López Nápoles, a member of the Republican Party of Cuba (PRC).

During the same interrogation, which took place on January 17, he was warned that he would be sent back to the Isle of Youth—where he lives—under the terms of the "sweeping plan." As they explained to him, this plan meant he would not be allowed to leave the island for any other part of the country. These threats were carried out the following day when he was forced to leave Havana for the Isle of Youth. He was also told that he would not be allowed to return to Havana.

The purpose of the arrest was to force him to sign a document renouncing his opposition in exchange for being allowed to leave the country. On January 13, López Nápoles was scheduled to travel to the United States; upon arriving at immigration control, he was informed that he could not travel due to a travel ban.

“I didn’t sign anything for them, nor will I,” he added; “it is my right to have my opinion and to think, and I will not give up my ideas for any exit visa.”

Adel says that he took a long time to file the complaint because, during the interrogation, his phone was taken from him and it had been checked, information deleted and several applications blocked.

Regarding the travel ban, the former political prisoner states that he contacted the Attorney General's Office and the Immigration Directorate "without receiving a clear answer," he asserts. Thus, López Nápoles joins the list of more than 226 Cuban dissidents subject to travel restrictions, according to the latest list published by the Patmos Institute on December 31, 2019.

Similarly, she denounces the harassment of her family, as on Sunday, shortly after arriving home, a summons was delivered for her 19-year-old son. The young man was supposed to appear this morning at the local Military Committee, which he failed to do.

“I know this won’t end here,” she says. “There will be reprisals, and they’ll try to hurt my family; that summons for my son wasn’t a coincidence. Once before, in a similar situation, they tried to run him over with a motorcycle as he was leaving school.”

López Nápoles has been involved in the opposition in Isla de la Juventud for about twenty years. Until last August, he served as the National Executive Director of the PRC. Since then, he has held other internal positions within the party, which require him to travel constantly throughout the country. Last April, he was detained in Las Tunas by the State Security Police (SE), who stole 667 CUC and a cell phone from him.

He also stated that the PRC is organizing national elections and that he is leading the effort, "something that they – the SE – do not want to happen."

For his activism, Adel served three years in prison, between 2008 and 2011. He was accused of illegally leaving the country and sanctioned for “moral conviction, for not participating in mass organizations and for having an active counter-revolutionary work, as stated in the sentence,” he claimed.

From the PRC, he works to recover republican values, a democratic constitution, end the dictatorship that has prevailed in Cuba for more than 61 years, and ensure respect for human rights.