The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is a non-violent opposition organization in Cuba that brings together Cuban dissidents. It was founded on August 24, 2011, by José Daniel Ferrer García after he was released from prison in March 2011 and refused to leave the country.
Although it began with just twelve people, UNPACU now has over ten thousand affiliated activists and 122 cells. By 2017, they estimated that 53 of their activists were imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons.
UNPACU has representation in both the United States and the European Union
On the organization's website, it can be read, "UNPACU's activism is based on non-violent resistance and disobedience, the same principle upon which the so-called 'color revolutions' were founded, the pillars of action of which were originally articulated by Gene Sharp."
Recognized by Amnesty International since its inception, this movement has denounced the harassment, intimidation, and arrests suffered by its members at the hands of the Cuban authorities.
As part of its growth and consolidation, UNPACU absorbed in 2013 the peaceful dissident organization FANTU, led by the renowned dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas.
Among its objectives, the organization actively denounces the lack of civil liberties as well as the precarious economic situation on the island.
In January 2012, one of its members, the Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, 31 years old, died at the Juan Bruno Zayas hospital in Santiago de Cuba after a 50-day hunger strike that he started in prison following a four-year sentence for contempt for participating in a peaceful demonstration.
