VOC Presents Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to José Daniel Ferrer

On November 10, 2025, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), in partnership with the Embassy of Lithuania, presented the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer. Originally given in absentia in 2020 while Ferrer was imprisoned, the medal recognizes Ferrer’s lifelong commitment to democracy, human rights, and opposition to communist oppression in Cuba, where he endured more than two decades of imprisonment, torture, and persecution. 

The award was presented to Ferrer by Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and Founding Director of the VOC Museum. Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding explained that Ferrer “devoted his life to fighting for freedom and democracy within a totalitarian regime. We marvel at Ferrer’s moral clarity, his courage, his endurance, his witness, his character, as we thank and honor him.”   
 
At the ceremony, Lithuanian Foreign Minister H.E. Kęstutis Budrys highlighted Ferrer’s fearless pursuit of liberty for all Cubans and reflected on the Cuban people’s fight against communism—a struggle that Lithuania has also faced. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who helped welcome Ferrer at the event, called out the crimes of the communists in Havana and urged European allies to hold the Cuban regime accountable.   
 
Accepting the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, José Daniel Ferrer said, “I’m here, thanks to the solidarity of friends and organizations, in the name of the political prisoners who are still suffering in Cuba.” Ferrer continued, explaining that “Communism does not need to be debated. It is the worst system that the human race has endured… It is not only a danger for those who live under communism currently, but also for nations that are free and democratic, because communist countries try to impose their ideology on others. This is why the work of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and governments like the United States and Lithuania is so important.”