Black UNPACU activist from Baracoa was threatened to be detained and investigated by police officers after standing up to their racist comments

On October 9, 2020, the activist of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Sandra Sánchez Osorio, was the victim of racist comments by the head of the sector, the captain of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) Gianni Clape Rodríguez and by the auxiliary Mauricio Barsaga Stupiñan. They told the activist in a mocking way that the day after- 10 of October- was her day. The activist replied that she was very proud of being black, that the colour of her skin was not a reason to be inferior to anyone. The fact that she had not studied to be a police officer, did not make her inferior to anyone and that being a police officer was a profession like any other when it was done with dignity. The officer asked the activist if she was making fun of him because he was a police officer. She told him: "I don't make fun of you for being a police officer, I make fun of you for being an abusive police officer, because your conduct violates article # 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as article # 19". In these articles it is said that everyone has rights and freedoms proclaimed without any distinction of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, etc. And it is also said there everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression and that this right includes the right not to be disturbed because of one’s opinions. The activist also told the captain that wearing a police uniform did not make him smarter and that it was a pity that the regime was proclaiming internationally that there was no discrimination on the grounds of race in Cuba when, in fact, those entrusted with defending the tenets of constitution, are the first to violate it. The officer, seeing that she was right, told the activist that he knew that she had links with anti-social elements, she was being watched, they were going to open an investigation file for counterrevolutionary behaviour, she was being prosecuted for having links with the revolution’s enemies and soon she would be summoned to the PNR unit.