Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez

Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez is a Cuban 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. 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 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). The reports seem to have triggered his arrest.

Espinosa Rodríguez was arrested in October 2006 along with Armando Betancourt Reina and Raymundo Perdigon Brito. 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 in jail. 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 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.