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.
Despite initially comprising twelve people, UNPACU now has over ten thousand affiliated activists and 122 cells. As of 2017, they reported that there were 53 of their activists imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons.
UNPACU has representation both in the United States and in 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 that underpinned the so-called 'color revolutions,' whose lines of action were originally outlined by Gene Sharp.”
Recognized by Amnesty International since its inception, this movement has denounced the harassment, intimidation, and detentions that its members have suffered 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 well-known dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas.
Among its objectives, the organization actively denounces the lack of civil liberties as well as the precarious economic situation prevailing 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 he had started in prison following a contempt conviction that resulted in a four-year sentence for participating in a peaceful protest.
