Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n nurse, journalist, blogger and human rights activist. In 2006 he was dismissed from his job with the public health service and arrested after reporting on an outbreak of

dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. Asymptomatic infections are uncommon, mild cases happen frequently; if symptoms appear, they typically begin 3 to 14 days after i ...

. Since then he has been repeatedly arrested for his human rights activities. Until 2006 Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez worked as a nurse in the public health service and as a part-time reporter. In October 2005 Espinosa Rodríguez filed a report on an event in

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

attended by 20,000 young people as part of a campaign for the prevention of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. Police tried to remove a participant, but were forced to retreat when the crowd turned against them. In July 2006 Espinosa submitted reports on an outbreak of dengue fever in Santiago de Cuba to the independent agency Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO). Shortly afterwards he was dismissed from his job. Cuba suppresses reports of epidemics to avoid disturbing the tourists. Before Espinosa published his reports, the official media had refused to recognize the existence of dengue fever in Cuba. The reports seem to have triggered his arrest. Espinosa Rodríguez was arrested in October 2006 along with Armando Betancourt Reina and

Raymundo Perdigon Brito Raymundo Perdigón Brito is an independent Cuban journalist. In December 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison for " Social Dangerousness". In 2006, Perdigon was acting as a freelance journalist. He had published articles on foreign web ...

. In November 2006 he was convicted under article 72 of the Cuban Penal Code in a Santiago de Cuba court on grounds of " social dangerousness." He was sentenced to two years of home confinement. Although he had lost his job with the public health service, Espinosa was told he should find another job with a government department or he would have to serve his

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

in jail. In a call for Espinosa's release on 8 November 2006,

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

noted that "social dangerousness" meant he might commit a crime although he had not in fact committed any. The authorities could use this charge to imprison anyone they wanted to. In a press release on 29 January 2007 the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

noted that Espinosa had been jailed and said it "reiterates its great concern over the systematic and continuous situation of utter and complete disrespect for freedom of thought and expression in Cuba." In March 2009 Espinosa was working for the Center of Applied Marketing and Political Publicity in Santiago de Cuba. He was detained and then placed under house arrest for his activities on the sixth anniversary of the arrest of 75 activists in the " Black Spring" of 2003. In February 2011 Espinosa was detained for commemorating the death of Orlando Zapata, a political prisoner, one year earlier. He was one of many arrested during marches held across the country. In April 2012 during a papal mass in Santiago de Cuba a dissident named Andrés Carrión Alvarez shouted "down with communism" and was promptly arrested. A scuffle broke out, and Carrión was attacked by a Red Cross stretcher bearer. Espinosa went to Carrión's aid, and was himself arrested for "contempt of authority". At the time, Espinosa was under house arrest for three years for his pro-democracy activities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espinosa Rodriguez, Guillermo Cuban male journalists Cuban bloggers Cuban male writers Living people People from Santiago de Cuba Cuban nurses Male bloggers Year of birth missing (living people)