The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is a non-violent opposition organization that brings together Cuban dissidents. It was established 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 having started with only twelve individuals, UNPACU now has over ten thousand affiliated activists and 122 cells. By 2017, they reported 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, with their action guidelines initially 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 notable dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas.
Among its objectives, the organization actively denounces the shortcomings of civil liberties as well as the precarious economic situation experienced on the island.
In January 2012, one of its members, the Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, aged 31, died at the Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in Santiago de Cuba after a 50-day hunger strike he had initiated while in prison. He had been sentenced to four years in prison for contempt after participating in a peaceful demonstration.
