José Daniel Ferrer and Mike Hammer meet in Miami

October 31, 2026

Mike Hammer, the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Cuba, met in Miami with opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), the U.S. Embassy in Havana said on Friday, October 30. The meeting was reported by Martí Noticias and Cubanet.

"A pleasure to meet José Daniel in Miami. Always focused on how a better future can be achieved for the Cuban people," Hammer wrote in a message the embassy posted with a photo of the two. The same day, the diplomat said he had also seen activist Rosa María Payá, a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in Miami.

Ferrer, who has lived in Miami since leaving prison and Cuba in October 2025, was at UN headquarters in New York this week during the General Assembly debate on Cuba's resolution against the embargo. Days earlier he took part in a forum on Cuba organized by the U.S. mission to the UN. Hammer had already met Ferrer and Payá in Miami in January, when they discussed political prisoners and their families, according to the embassy.