Carlos Alberto Montaner
Writer and journalist sentenced to 20 years at age 17; he escaped prison and took asylum in 1961. He founded the Cuban Liberal Union in 1989. He died in Madrid in 2023.
Figures archive
Those who document and resist
Against the official myth that brands dissidents as “mercenaries”, this record documents the civic, journalistic and personal record of people who risked their freedom to tell the truth.
Independent journalism
Raúl Rivero
Poet and journalist, former Prensa Latina correspondent in Moscow, who founded the independent agency Cuba Press in 1995; sentenced to 20 years in the 2003 Black Spring and released in 2004. He died in Miami in 2021.
Reinaldo Escobar Casas
Journalist fired from Juventud Rebelde in 1988 and independent since 1989; co-founded the digital newspaper 14ymedio in 2014.
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces
Lawyer, poet and CubaNet journalist; an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, jailed from September 2019 to September 2020 after being beaten while covering a trial.
Yoani Sánchez
Philologist and journalist, author of the Generación Y blog; on May 21, 2014 she launched the independent digital newspaper 14ymedio, which she runs from Havana.
Camila Acosta
Independent journalist, ABC correspondent and CubaNet contributor; detained on July 12, 2021 for covering the 11J protests and held under house arrest for more than ten months.
Early opposition and political prison
Huber Matos
Rebel Army commander who resigned in October 1959 denouncing the government's communist course; convicted of "treason and sedition", he served his full 20-year sentence.
Gustavo Arcos Bergnes
Moncada veteran and former ambassador to Belgium who broke with the regime, was imprisoned from 1981 to 1988 and led the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.
Pedro Luis Boitel
Student leader arrested in 1961 and sentenced to 10 years, later extended; he died on May 25, 1972 in the Castillo del Príncipe after 53 days on hunger strike.
Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo
Commander of the Second National Front of the Escambray against Batista; captured in 1964 after returning to rise up against Castro, he spent 22 years in prison. He moved back to Cuba in 2003 and died in Havana.
Armando Valladares Pérez
Arrested in 1960 after refusing to display a pro-Castro sign at work, he spent 22 years in prison; freed in 1982 after an international campaign, he wrote the memoir Against All Hope.
Cary Roque (Caridad Roque Pérez)
CMQ actress and broadcaster arrested in 1961, aged 19, for conspiring with the MRR; she served 16 of a 20-year sentence and in exile worked for Radio Martí. She died in Miami in 2023.
Civic opposition and human rights
Vladimiro Roca Antúnez
Economist who signed "La Patria es de Todos" in 1997 as part of the Group of Four; imprisoned from 1997 to 2002. He died in Havana in 2023.
Héctor Palacios Ruiz
Co-founded one of the first human rights groups in 1989; sentenced to 25 years in the Black Spring and released on health grounds in 2006. He died in Miami in 2025.
Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz
Heads the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which for decades has published lists of political prisoners.
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello
Economist and the only woman among the 75 dissidents sentenced in the 2003 Black Spring, to 20 years; later released on health grounds. 2024 International Women of Courage award.
Laura Pollán
Literature teacher who founded the Ladies in White in 2003 with relatives of Black Spring prisoners; the group received the Sakharov Prize in 2005. She died in Havana in 2011.
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas
Founder of the Christian Liberation Movement and the Varela Project, which delivered over 25,000 signatures seeking a referendum; in 2023 the IACHR concluded state agents took part in his 2012 death.
Dagoberto Valdés Hernández
Catholic intellectual from Pinar del Río, founder of Vitral magazine and director of the Convivencia Studies Center; member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1999 to 2007.
Óscar Elías Biscet González
Physician and dissident sentenced to 25 years in the Black Spring; in 2007, while in prison, he received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas Hernández
Psychologist and independent journalist from Villa Clara, with more than 25 hunger strikes and over 14 years in prison across three sentences; 2010 Sakharov Prize. Detained again on August 31, 2026.
Berta Soler Fernández
Leads the Ladies in White, the movement of political prisoners' relatives born after the 2003 Black Spring and awarded the 2005 Sakharov Prize.
Ariel Sigler Amaya
Leader of the Alternative Option Movement in Matanzas, sentenced in the Black Spring; he became paraplegic in prison and was released in 2010.
Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”
Dissident from Placetas who spent 17 years in prison (1990–2007); in exile in Miami since 2019.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo
Bricklayer and activist arrested in the 2003 Black Spring, whose sentence grew to 36 years with charges added in prison; he died in 2010 after an 86-day hunger strike.
José Daniel Ferrer García
Founder of the Patriotic Union of Cuba; a Black Spring prisoner, jailed again after 11J and sent into exile in the United States in October 2025.
Aniette González García
Camagüey activist arrested in March 2023 over photos of herself wrapped in the Cuban flag and sentenced to 3 years for "insulting national symbols"; released in December 2025.
Rosa María Payá Acevedo
Activist who founded the Cuba Decide initiative in 2015; elected by the OAS General Assembly as an IACHR commissioner, the first Cuban in the role, from January 1, 2026.
Art, music and literature
Celia Cruz
The "Queen of Salsa" left Cuba on July 15, 1960 and never returned; she could not go back even to bid farewell to her mother in 1962.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Novelist from Gibara who went into exile in 1965 and lived 40 years in London; author of Three Trapped Tigers and Mea Cuba, 1997 Cervantes Prize.
Heberto Padilla
Poet whose 1971 arrest and forced public self-criticism led many intellectuals to break with the regime; he left Cuba in 1980.
Reinaldo Arenas
Novelist censored and imprisoned in El Morro from 1974 to 1976; he left Cuba through Mariel in 1980 and died in New York in 1990, after dictating his memoir, Before Night Falls.
Paquito D'Rivera
Havana-born musician sidelined for playing jazz, deemed "imperialist music"; he sought asylum in 1980 and spent nine years separated from his family.
Zoé Valdés
Havana-born novelist, author of Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada, living in Paris since 1995.
Tania Bruguera
Artist detained over her 2014 performance and after 27N in 2020; she left Cuba in August 2021 and teaches at Harvard.
Yotuel Romero
Founder of Orishas and co-author of "Patria y Vida", the 2021 song that won the Latin Grammy for Song of the Year and became the anthem of 11J.
Yunior García Aguilera
Playwright from Holguín, part of 27N and founder of the Archipiélago platform, which called the 15N civic march; he left for Spain on November 17, 2021 after police surrounded his home.
Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez
Rapper and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement, co-author of "Patria y Vida"; imprisoned since May 2021, now in Guanajay prison, Artemisa.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara
Artist and co-founder of the San Isidro Movement; an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, he served five years in prison and was sent into exile in July 2026.
Politics and international advocacy
Václav Havel
Dissident playwright and former Czech president who founded the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba in 2003, after the Black Spring.
Jorge Mas Canosa
Exile leader who founded the Cuban American National Foundation in 1981 and proposed the creation of Radio Martí.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
First Hispanic woman and first Cuban-American elected to the US Congress, where she served from 1989 to 2019; she chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Carlos Giménez
The only sitting US Congressman born in Cuba; he was Miami's fire chief and mayor of Miami-Dade County.
Lincoln Díaz-Balart
US Congressman for Florida for 18 years; he pushed the 1996 law that codified the embargo and co-wrote the NACARA law. He died in 2025.
Mario Díaz-Balart
US Congressman for Florida since 2003, vice-chair of the House Appropriations Committee and chair of its national security and State Department subcommittee.
María Elvira Salazar
Journalist and US Congresswoman for Florida since 2021, daughter of Cuban exiles; the only Hispanic US journalist to interview Fidel Castro one-on-one.
Marco Rubio
US Senator for Florida from 2011 to 2025 and US Secretary of State; in September 2026 he said his government has imposed the strongest sanctions in history on Cuba, aimed at GAESA.
Content creators
Reliability as a source
- Long, consistent and verifiable record as a source
- Generally reliable; mixes news and opinion
- First-hand testimony or opinion; cross-check before citing
Realidad Cubana’s editorial assessment of reliability as a news source, not of courage or ideas.
Ninoska Pérez Castellón
Miami exile radio host and commentator; she hosted “Ninoska en Mambí” on Radio Mambí for 26 years, until January 2023.
Alexander Otaola
Cuban presenter in Miami who hosts the online show “Hola! Ota-Ola”; in 2024 he ran for Miami-Dade mayor and finished third with about 12% of the vote.
Mario J. Pentón
Journalist born in Cienfuegos who started as a 14ymedio correspondent; from exile he reports on Cuba and Cuban immigration to millions of followers.
Eliécer Ávila
Computer engineer from Puerto Padre who publicly questioned Ricardo Alarcón in 2008; he founded the Somos+ movement and streams almost daily on YouTube.
Los Pichy Boys
Cuban comedy duo from Miami, Alejandro González and Maikel Rodríguez, who have satirized life in Cuba and in exile on YouTube since 2007.
Liu Santiesteban
Havana-born influencer who co-hosts “Juntas y Revueltas” with Ana Olema, a YouTube show that denounces the regime; in December 2023 the Cuban government put her on its list of alleged terrorists.
Ana Olema
Visual artist and influencer born in Holguín who co-hosts “Juntas y Revueltas” with Liu Santiesteban, a YouTube show that denounces the regime and calls for the release of political prisoners.
Anna Bensi
Havana content creator who has posted videos about Cuban reality since September 2025; since March 2026 she has been charged and under house arrest together with her mother.
Dina Stars
Havana YouTuber and actress whom State Security detained on 13 July 2021 while she was giving a live interview to the Spanish TV show “Todo es mentira” on Cuatro.
El4tico (Kamil Zayas and Ernesto Medina)
Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina, founders of the Holguín audiovisual project El4tico, were detained by State Security on 6 February 2026.
Fuera de la Caja
Youth collective founded in early 2026 in El Cerro, Havana, that shares content about Cuban reality and calls for the release of political prisoners.
Eddy Ceballos, Despingovery Channel
Creator of the satirical Despingovery Channel, detained by State Security in Havana on 1 June 2026 after publishing a video from an abandoned military site.
Yamilka Lafita, “Lara Crofs”
Art historian and activist who returned to Cuba after more than eleven years abroad and posts her humanitarian work and denunciations online; State Security detained her in Havana on 18 April 2026.
Manuel Milanés
Havana-born economist and businessman in exile who runs a YouTube channel on Cuban politics and economics; the regime put him on its national list of alleged terrorists.
Ruhama Fernández
Santiago de Cuba YouTuber and former medical student who comments on political and social issues; from 2020 she was summoned, interrogated, barred from travel and, in August 2021, detained while her home was searched.
Un Asere Pensante (Brian Infante)
Brian Infante's YouTube channel, which covers Cuban current affairs with humor and denounces the Castro dictatorship.