The Castro-communist tyranny is increasing repression and is "preparing for war."

On the morning of this Saturday, November 7, 2026, the political police, accompanied by special forces known as "Black Berets," raided the home of the young Yoel Alejandro Pérez Serrano in Guamuta, in the area of El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba. The operation aimed to arrest him and seize food, pots, cauldrons, money, phones, and other resources he uses to support a humanitarian project benefiting more than 400 vulnerable individuals. They took him away under arrest. At the time of writing these lines, his family is unaware of his whereabouts.

We demand that the authorities immediately inform us of Joel Alejandro's whereabouts, allow his family to communicate with him, and release him. Those who depend on that project also suffer the consequences of this disproportionate repressive action. A pot, a kettle, and a phone enable the organization of food purchases, coordination of volunteers, and notification to neighbors when food is ready. If the authorities deprive the organizers of those resources, they endanger the assistance that hundreds of people receive.

In the Zamorana neighborhood, also in Santiago de Cuba, Maikel Mediaceja Ramos faces a similar siege. This activist of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and former political prisoner, along with his family and other collaborators, runs an initiative that has managed to feed over a thousand people each day. According to the information we receive daily, the so-called State Security threatens to imprison him for a third time if he continues with the project. This threat also extends to the elderly and families who come seeking a meal.

In Havana, during the last few days, activists, independent journalists, and other dissenters have reported subpoenas, detentions, police cordons, surveillance, and threats. Journalists and activists reported that agents prevented them from leaving their homes to attend a cultural event at the U.S. Embassy. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported yesterday that in October it documented at least 387 repressive actions, including 30 arbitrary detentions and 145 surveillance operations and cordons around homes. It also recorded physical assaults against political prisoners, including Roilán Álvarez Rensoler, and complaints regarding a lack of medical attention in prisons.

As repression increases, the leadership hardens its bellicose rhetoric. On November 4 and 5, the Moncada 2026 Strategic Exercise was conducted nationwide. The Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, and local defense structures participated. The regime portrayed the maneuvers as preparation for a potential external aggression. In Holguín, the response to aerial attacks and drones was rehearsed. On Friday, the 6th, the deployment led to National Defense Day.

In Guantánamo, public information about Moncada indicates preparations of the territorial defense system in anticipation of possible aerial attacks. On the other hand, reports I have received suggest that units of the FAR near the perimeter of the American naval base in Guantánamo Bay are conducting maneuvers and shooting practices. From Bayamo, I have just been informed about work being done to adapt mountainous areas in the Sierra Maestra, presumably to prepare for a "guerrilla warfare" scenario.

The closer the Castro-communist regime feels to its end, the more it resorts to harassment and violence to prolong its power. A community kitchen demonstrates that Cubans can organize themselves and address needs that the State neglects. This is why it generates so much resentment among those who seek to control even solidarity. We demand the freedom of Joel Alejandro Pérez Serrano and the cessation of threats against Maikel Mediaceja Ramos.

The behavior of the Castro-communist leadership is completely irrational. This is the time to initiate a serious transition toward democracy in Cuba and start ensuring fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and peaceful protest. It is time to sit down and negotiate with the government of Donald Trump to end the U.S. embargo and tackle the economic, social, political, and humanitarian crisis that the nation is experiencing.

While millions of Cubans suffer from hunger, the priority should be ensuring they have food. It is urgent to resolve the energy crisis, restore health services, reactivate transportation, and address the serious housing crisis. However, the leadership clings to power, represses more forcefully, and persecutes those who seek solutions to the problems it has created itself. In Guamuta, this irrationality has a concrete expression. The young man who helps feed more than 400 people has been taken into custody, and his family is still waiting to find out where he is.

With that behavior, those in the regime are hastening the end of their tyranny and condemning themselves to the worst place in the dumpster of history.