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Emiliano Domingo Marrero Barea, 80 years old, known by the nickname "Pelao," has been missing since Friday, April 3, 2026, when he left his home in Cienfuegos heading to Sancti Spíritus; since then, no one has heard anything about him.
The elderly man left around noon for the bus terminal in Cienfuegos to begin his interprovincial journey, but he never reached his destination or returned home.
What makes his situation even more alarming is that Emiliano has severe vulnerability conditions: he has difficulties with vision and hearing, which greatly increases the risk he faces with every passing hour without being found.
At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing gray pants, a green shirt, and a black cap, carrying a backpack and wearing dark brown loafers. In the photos shared by his family, he is seen with a white t-shirt and a blue cap bearing the inscription "MADRID."
In the absence of an institutional response, the family turned to social media as the only available channel to search for the elderly man. Users such as César Marrero, Mindrey Jiménez and Pancha Soto Saria shared his photo and description.
The independent feminist initiative Alas Tensas also amplified the alert on Facebook.
"No longer sees well and cannot hear either, please, the family is extremely worried," wrote Soto Saria in his post.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Emiliano Domingo Marrero Barea can contact his family at the numbers +53 51630752 and +53 54079744.
This desperate recourse to social media is not a voluntary choice; it is a direct consequence of the institutional abandonment by the Cuban regime regarding cases of missing persons.
In Cuba, there is no early warning system, there is no dissemination in state media, and the police are repeatedly criticized for their inaction.
The lack of transparent institutional mechanisms continues to condemn Cuban families to search for their loved ones alone, with only a phone and a Facebook post as their resources.
The case of Emiliano is not an isolated one. Last December, an elderly man went missing in the municipality of Palmira, also in Cienfuegos; the Police only participated on the first day of the search, and the local delegate joined on the eighth day. He was found dead on January 5 in a canal.
In Manzanillo, Ángel Hung Ramos, an elderly man with senile dementia, went missing on November 26 and was found deceased after 10 days, while his family posted daily messages on Facebook.
In Camagüey, in June 2024, another elderly person disappeared; he was run over and died unidentified at the Amalia Simoni Provincial Hospital, despite the Police claiming to have searched hospitals.
The Cienfuegos-Sancti Spíritus route also has tragic precedents: last November, the young Abel Paneque Pérez, 17 years old, disappeared during a bus trip on that same route, with authorities failing to implement an efficient search protocol.
And in October 2023, Amado Cabrera Sarría disappeared in Cienfuegos after cashing his pension check, with no reported resolution.
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