HAVANA – The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Tuesday denounced another “arbitrary arrest” of dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer, a former political prisoner.

A communique from the commission’s spokesman, Elizardo Sanchez, said that Ferrer was arrested Monday night by the political police in the province of Holguin, some 750 kilometers (465 miles) east of Havana, and “his whereabouts are unknown.”

Ferrer, the 41-year-old leader of the banned opposition Patriotic Union of Cuba group has been temporarily arrested on other occasions in recent months.

In April, he was held by police for 27 days in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, where he lives, and was released pending trial on a charge of “public disorder.”

The rights commission on Tuesday emphasized that the organization Ferrer heads “is continuing with noteworthy anti-establishment activity in the Cuban interior and, most especially, in the eastern region of the island.”

In addition, it said that the opposition figure has been the target “of ... manhunts and even the looting of his home, with the aim of trying to crush him or make him desist from his firm pro-democratic militancy.”

As a member of the so-called “Group of 75” opposition members sent to prison in the spring of 2003, Ferrer was released on parole in March 2011.

The Cuban government characterizes dissidents and opposition members as counterrevolutionaries and mercenaries in the service of the United States. EFE