"I call on all Cubans to bury this regime." — Dr. Darsi Ferrer.
Cuban dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer, who on Friday was arrested twice by the political police, was released Saturday afternoon, Ferrer told Miscelaneas de Cuba.
His was a 36-hour ordeal, complete with an apparent attempt by the police to murder his 5-year-old son.
On Monday, however, Ferrer, one of the more vocal dissidents since Raúl Castro was named "temporary" dictator July 31, remained defiant.
"I reaffirm that change is neccessary," said Ferrer, who has called for a national election to decide whether Raúl should succeed his brother.
"The people are tired of such arbitrariness. These are determining moments to demand a new nation with true sovereignty, so that there is room for all on the island, and that we quit fattening the sharks in the Florida Straits with desperate Cubans trying to leave.
"So that the hope of the young does not continue to deteriorate. Nor that children go to bed hungry and their parents without being able to face these misfortunes."
Ferrer's account of what happened is almost identical to what his wife and two other dissidents reported earlier:
About 2 a.m. Friday, several dozen police officers, some with guns drawn, broke into Ferrer's house, and took him away. They did not even give him to put on a shirt or shoes. Inside, they left Ferrer's 5-year-old son alone, since Ferrer's wife was away caring for her ill mother.
When she returned, Mrs. Ferrer and some neighbors had to break a window to get back inside. That's when they discovered someone had turned on the gas as the child slept.
Ferrer said plainclothes agents, who would not identify themselves, accused him of placing stickers near his home that said, "Cambio, or "change."
About 7 a.m., Ferrer was released, but officials made him walk home, again with no shirt or shoes.
"I looked like a psychiatric patient walking the streets," Ferrer said.
About five hours later, Ferrer was arrested again, while standing with two other dissidents near the U.S. Interests Section — from where Ferrer regularly e-mails supporters, including Uncommon Sense, outside of Cuba.
About 11 p.m., he again was subjected to an interrogation, this time by two uniformed men with State Security.
Finally, about 2 p.m. Saturday — 36 hours after his ordeal began — Ferrer was released.
In the interview with Miscelaneas de Cuba , Ferrer called on Cuban opposition leaders to launch a non-violent civil disobedience campaign against the regime.
"My main message is that change is in each and every Cuban," Ferrer said. "Fidel Castro must abandon his power, and a Castroite succession is unacceptable."
For more on Ferrer's arrest, and what might have really motivated it, read here and here.
For more background on Ferrer, read this piece from the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
My apologies if some of Ferrer's quotes read awkwardly. The translation was my own.
UPDATED
El Confeti has what is probabaly a better translation of the Miscelaneas de Cuba article.
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