Take Urgent Action for Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina

Friends and family fear for his life

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina

Today, reports have emerged expressing extreme concern for the plight of Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina. Néstor has been a pro-democracy and human rights activist in Cuba for over 20 years and has paid the price both in prison time and suffering brutal physical assaults. He has been recognized in the past as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience on more than one occasion.

Nestor was invited to attend an international human rights conference in Geneva between March 8-9, 2010 but was denied an exit permit required for all Cubans who wish to travel out of the country. Below is the audio of the statement broadcast at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy.



He was arrested on December 9, 2010 [ the eve of International Human Rights Day] , pepper sprayed extensively, beaten up and detained in front of his 10 year old daughter, Diana Rodriguez Castillo. She was left to find her way back home alone (15 blocks away) after witnessing the brutal assault on her father. She is pictured below with Nestor and her recently born born sibling.

Nestor with his 10 year old daughter, Diana Rodriguez Castillo and new born child.

Today, Nestor's wife,Daneysi Gálvez Pereira, in an interview with the Cuban Democratic Directorate warned that her husband's life is in danger:

"I want to denounce the situation that Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina is suffering at this moment in prison. His life is being threatened by convicts inside the same prison that the military police placed in Nestor's cell to beat on him. Yesterday while he was explaining they would not let him speak on the telephone. The attending guard hung up the phone. He was telling him: 'listen compadre, you cannot be saying that over the telephone.' They didn't want him to say any of that over the phone, that these situations were resolved inside. They are doing this in an effort finish of Nestor."

In addition to Daneysi over twitter, his brother, Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina warned: They are preparing a 2001 style attack against Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina in the Combinado provincial prison of Guantanamo. In another tweet Rolando provided the name of the criminal in charge of attacking Nestor under orders of the police identifying Leovigildo Almaguer Peña. Blogger Luis Felipe Rojas called for an international solidarity effort to bring attention to Nestor's plight.

Remember that in the past Nestor suffered a broken jaw at the hand of prisoners ordered to attack him by prison guards and that he also had to undergo surgery on his leg after beating carried out by prison guards against his person.