They denounce state horror practices against social assistance from UNPACU in Santiago de Cuba

The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) continues to face a wave of repression by the Cuban regime in the face of the humanitarian work, denounced the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC).

The document highlights how state security has intensified arrests, threats and confiscations against collaborators and people who receive the help of the organization in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, vice president of the CTDC, told Martí News from Havana that, with this statement, the Council «is supporting one of its integrating organizations» that performs an «immense work of support and social assistance» for the benefit of «the most devacicated people in one of the most helpless regions of the country, which is the East.»

According to the CTDC, at least 110 people have been arrested for attending this social assistance initiative, which currently serves more than 260 citizens in extreme poverty.

«The response that the Government is giving (…) is not appropriate to the reality that the country is living. Instead of stimulating that society itself, with its resources, its abilities, its skills, provides the most dispossessed and most vulnerable sectors, what it does is repress an action that wanted to monopolize over more than 60 years,» said the activist.

Cuesta Morúa said that the failed state that is Cuba is «unable to recognize that it is not in a position to provide, to assist and guarantee the sustained well -being of Cuban society.»

The CTDC document highlights alarming cases of repression, such as Yarisleidis Richard Rodríguez, mother of a minor, who was arrested without prior notice, leaving his son in total helplessness.

The arrest and abuse of an 86 -year -old elder is also denounced, a cancer ill, who was trying to reach the headquarters of the organization, in the Altamira cast of the Santiago capital in search of food. In addition, some mothers have been threatened with the withdrawal of the custody of their children for receiving assistance from the UNPACU.

This criminalization of humanitarian assistance reflects, according to the agency, «the practices of state terror» of the Cuban regime, which contrasts with the official discourse that Havana promotes in international forums on human rights.

Other independent organizations, such as the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), have also denounced the threats against Ferrer and the work carried out by UNPACU.

Yaxys Cires, Chief of Eight Strategies, said that «both in February and so far in March, the organization has registered a growing harassment against the opponent.» He also denounced the repressive actions against the projects that Ferrer develops «to help their neighbors, the residents of their municipality, to mitigate hunger and poverty in which they are living.»

José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the UNPACU and president of the CTDC, has been one of the main targets of repression. According to the statement, the opponent is being threatened to return to prison for their work in the distribution of food to people in need. From the headquarters of UNPACU in Santiago de Cuba, Ferrer thanked the support:

«We are very grateful to our brothers of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba by this solidarity statement with the Patriotic Union of Cuba, with the UNPACU and with our humanitarian work, already persecuted with cruelty by the repressive forces of the Castrocommunist regime.»

Given this situation, the CTDC has urged international organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union to take concrete actions. In particular, he has called the EU to strengthen his support for Cuban civil society and condemn the persecution against opponents.

«They kill the people of hunger, of needs of all kinds, with all kinds of hardships, and persecute those who try to help, the most needy,» Ferrer denounced.