BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF NESTOR RODRIGUEZ LOBAINA

Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina is President of the Young Cubans for Democracy Movement. He was born on April 27, 1965 in Baracoa, Cuba (northeast part of the island).

In the early 1980’s, while attending preuniversitary school, his first dissident assertions against the hard line of the Cuban regime were formed. This led to his being interrogated and categorized as an "ideological diversionist". Eventually, he began his undergraduate studies in science, yet in spite of his stellar qualifications, he is denied the right to continue his education due to his persisting "ideological problems".

In 1988 he moved to Havana, where he officially begins to develop his talent as a poet. At the same time he gets involved in the arts and literary circles of the city, where he is able to interact with world renowned intellectual and literary figures. At this time, he is able to resume his studies and does so in the fields of literature and politics.

In 1990, the significant transformations occurring in Eastern Europe marked an important change in the political consciousness unfolding among the young Cuban politicians on the Island. In July 1991, along with other young Cubans from his home town, Nestor formed the dissident organization named Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement, and a few months later the organization adopts the historical date of September 6, in honor of the peaceful protest demanding the liberation of all political prisoners jailed in Castro’s prisons, which occurred in Havana in front of the Headquarters of the State Security Police, known as Villa Maristas, in 1991. The Movement is also the author of a project called Universities without Frontiers, directed to reestablish the autonomy of the Cuban universities, abolished by the Cuban government and also to establish an environment and a culture of democracy inside the Universities.

Shortly after he founded the Cuban Youth for Democracy Movement, Nistor was sent to prison to serve an 18 months sentence. After he served the whole sentence and therefore released, he continued his civic activities for democracy in Cuba, and suffered many arrests and beatings because of that. He is currently held in the Guantanamo’s Provincial Prison, serving another unjust sanction of 18 months of incarceration, only for expressing his opinions and fighting, in a civilist way, for the installment of the rule of law in his Homeland.

For more information on this case contact:

Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Directorate
> E-Mail: director@netside.net