Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (born 1971) is a Cuban writer and artist.

Biography

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was born in Havana, Cuba. He graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in biochemistry. At the time there were only about 200 official journalists who were allowed to have blogs by state media. The magazine is produced in PDF format and copies circulate in Cuba on CDs, flash drives, the domestic network known as the "intranet" and through photocopied paper editions. In 2014, he announced the release of an anthology he had edited, an English-language translation of eleven stories from Cuba entitled Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba.

He currently works as a contributing columnist for Sampsonia Way magazine.

Dissident incidents In 2009, he was involved in an incident and allegedly harassed by the Cuban security agents, along with another Cuban dissident blogger, Yoani Sanchez. Dressed in plain clothes, three security agents forced Lazo and Sanchez into a car without presenting an arrest warrant, and proceeded to beat them. Human rights groups such as the Human Rights Foundation have criticized the arrest, with HRF president Thor Halvorssen calling it "a blatant attempt by the Cuban government to silence independent thought and speech."

On September 1, 2012 Orlando was arrested along with several others by police in Havana. News of his arrest spread quickly through social media, particularly Twitter, and a group formed outside of the jail to protest his arrest. He was released later that same night.