Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez

Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez (18 January 1943 - 30 May 2026) was a Cuban nuclear engineer and a journalist.

The Fidel Castro regime arrested him during the 2003 "Black Spring" and sentenced him to 20 years in jail. He was released in February, 2011. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and called for his immediate release. In 2008, he won an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The award is given for journalists who show courage in defending press freedom in the face of attacks, threats or imprisonment.

He was a nuclear engineer before being sacked at the end of the 1980s for ideological errors. Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011.

In prison, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez managed to write his memoirs, Enterrados Vivos (English: Buried Alive), which was smuggled out one page at time. Upon his release in February, Maseda claimed that he was "released against his will," as he refused to leave jail unless he was exonerated or pardoned, along with the rest of the Black Spring prisoners.

He died on May 30, 2026.