Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez is a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

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 tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characterist ...

. 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 Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. 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 webs ...

. 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 Social dangerousness is a category of anti-social behaviour on the basis of detectors of dangerousness that enable the judicial authorities to justify the need for a particular control by the police authorities. These measures differ from country t ...

." 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 In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

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

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

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 CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...

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 Orlando Zapata Tamayo (May 15, 1967 – February 23, 2010) was a Cuban political activist and a political prisoner who died after hunger striking for more than 80 days. His death received international attention, and was viewed as a signific ...

, 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)