UNPACU activist arrested, interrogated, insulted and threatened for sharing the Universal Human Rights Declaration

An activist from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) was arrested in the Turey neighborhood by agents of the Department of State Security (DSE) and officers of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR). The arrest was the result of a complaint made by one of her coworkers to whom she handed over the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the document for which she was arrested. The activist was taken to the PNR unit where she was interrogated for almost eight hours by DSE Major Alfredo Oliveros. This officer tried to humiliate the activist by telling her that she would be stopped in front of all her co-workers so that everyone would know that "she was a worm and a sell-out who was in the service of the empire”. According to the victim, with these threats and insults, the officer wanted the activist to say who had given her the UDHR so that she would repeat them. Despite the pressure, she maintained that these documents were not hers, so the officer stopped threatening her and released her, but not before ordering an official warning for enemy propaganda and public disorder. In addition, she was charged with engaging in activities at her place of work that were not part of her job description. According to the victim, the woman who turned her in, Amelia Pelegrin, was seeking better conditions at her workplace.