An officer attempts to dissuade protesters outside the El Cobre police station, where they are demanding the release of Yoel Perez Serrano. / Social media

Dozens of residents, marched to the police station following the arrest of community activist Yoel Alejandro Perez Serrano.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – Dozens of residents of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba, took to the streets on Saturday to demand the release of Yoel Alejandro Perez Serrano, a young activist known for his community work who had been arrested hours earlier by State Security during an operation involving armed agents.

Videos shared on social media show mothers, children, and other local residents marching with signs and banging pots and pans while chanting, “The people united will never be defeated!” The slogan, widely used by the Cuban government, has also been heard at other recent anti-government protests. Later, the crowd chants in unison, “Freedom for Yoel, freedom, freedom!” as they advance toward the police station.

Another video shows protesters confronting police officers outside the station’s doors as the officers attempt to discourage the demonstration. Meanwhile, an elderly woman near the camera comments, “They can’t beat them… we’re not living in Batista’s time!”

Opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer García, founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), was the first to report the young activist’s arrest, during a livestream from Miami. According to information he was receiving directly at the time, Ferrer said agents arrived at Perez Serrano’s home in Guamuta at around six in the morning, carrying assault rifles, and blocked access to the neighborhood, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

“They stormed in with the Black Berets, armed to the teeth… They turned the house upside down, took the phones, took whatever food they found, took the cooking pots, jewelry, everything they came across,” Ferrer said. He added that officers told people attempting to pass through that “worms were not allowed through,” using the regime’s derogatory term for its opponents.

Perez Serrano, a resident of the rural community of Guamuta, in the Santiago de Cuba municipality of El Cobre, is known locally for promoting the humanitarian project “Save Cuba.” With support from Unpacu and the Cuban Resistance Assembly, the initiative provided at least one daily meal, Monday through Friday, to elderly people, malnourished children, the sick, and vulnerable families. The young man was also promoting the construction of a community medical clinic and a dining facility, which is why some residents call him “the mayor of Guamuta.”

Ferrer also said the activist devoted between 12 and 14 hours a day to his community work. “The dictatorship uses its military forces to repress a peaceful man, a noble, generous, deeply humane man who is sacrificing himself to help the people,” he stated.

Last July, Perez Serrano staged a public protest: he went out into the street barefoot and wearing only underwear, carrying a white sheet bearing the words “Freedom,” “Democracy,” “Justice,” and “Dignity.” Shortly afterward, he was summoned by the police.

Cuban authorities have not publicly disclosed Perez Serrano’s whereabouts or the formal charges against him. Social media users expressing solidarity with the young activist are demanding clarification about where he is being held, the conditions of his detention, and the justification for his arrest.

Perez Serrano’s arrest comes amid a growing wave of repression, with recent harassment and arrests of activists, opposition figures, independent journalists, and other dissident voices. In recent days, several people have been surrounded and confined to their homes, including independent journalists Yoani Sánchez, director of this newspaper, after being detained for nine hours by the political police; Adelth Bonne Gamboa, who was also detained; Camila Acosta, Yunia Figueredo, Marthadela Tamayo, and Osvaldo Navarro, as well as activist Yamilka Lafita (Lara Crofs).

Karel Daniel Hernandez, a member of the independent project Fuera de la Caja Cuba (Outside the Cuba Box), was also arrested. Meanwhile, evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Perez Lora, known as “Pregonero de Cristo” (Herald of Christ), who is being held at Villa Marista, will be forcibly deported from Havana to Las Tunas.

The protest in El Cobre comes amid a year of intense social unrest in eastern Cuba. In Santiago de Cuba, power outages last more than 24 hours on average, and pot-banging protests have multiplied across neighborhoods. In October, Cubalex recorded 48 public protests throughout Cuba, 11 of which took place in this eastern province, the second-highest number in the country after Havana’s 15.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.