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Víctor Manuel Domínguez, a writer, labor unionist, and independent journalist from Cuba, passed away on Friday night in Havana at the age of 68, due to complications arising from diabetes that he had.
The news was confirmed by independent journalist and union leader Julio Aleaga Pesant, one of his closest friends during the years of illness. According to Cubanet, Domínguez was in the process of undergoing the amputation of his second leg—having already lost the first one previously—when his passing occurred.
The journalist Boris González Arenas shared the news with sadness on social media: "I just learned from Julio Aleaga that today, July 10th, at around 8:00 PM, Víctor Manuel Domínguez passed away, writer, trade unionist, and independent journalist. I know that during these years of illness and struggle for Víctor, Julio Aleaga was more than a friend."
Born in Bayamo in 1957, Domínguez dedicated three decades to documenting the political, social, and cultural reality of Cuba from an independent position relative to the state apparatus. He collaborated with Cubanet since 1996, becoming one of its most veteran contributors with chronicles, analyses, and opinion pieces focused on human rights and Cuban society.
Beyond journalism, he developed an extensive literary body as a poet, storyteller, screenwriter, and critic. Among his titles is the poetry collection Café sin Heydi frente al mar, and he received accolades in national poetry and short story competitions. Several of his works were censored for ideological reasons and never published in Cuba, while others were withdrawn from state publishers, the source indicated.
Domínguez served as vice president of the Independent Writers' Club of Cuba and directed a labor and union training center. He also collaborated with the publication Puente de Letras, where he promoted the work of writers who operated outside the circuits controlled by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, a state organization that has historically functioned as an ideological filter.
His activism made him a permanent target of harassment by State Security. On several occasions, the authorities prevented him from leaving the country to participate in academic and cultural events abroad, applying the practice known as "regulation": when he arrived at the airport, immigration officials informed him that he could not travel, without providing explanations or legal justification. In October 2017, he was detained at the immigration control of the airport during one of these incidents, in a pattern that repeated itself on more than one occasion.
Boris González Arenas himself, who announced the journalist's death, was prevented from leaving the country in February 2026 to participate in a program about artificial intelligence and journalism in the United States, which highlights that the repression against independent press has not stopped.
The physical deterioration of Domínguez occurred in the context of a profound health crisis. Diabetes is the third leading cause of disability in Cuba and results in hundreds of lower limb amputations each year, in a healthcare system that in 2025 and 2026 has faced hospitals lacking medications and surgical materials.
Despite the repression, illness, and material limitations, Domínguez continued writing almost until the end of his life. The journalist L. Felipe Rojas, who presented one of his books in Miami, remembered him with these words: "He was a guy you couldn't stop laughing with. An extraordinary sense of humor. He gave nicknames to everyone; the moment you turned your back, you already had yours. R.I.P., 'Vittorio'."
The death of Domínguez represents another loss for independent journalism in Cuba, which in October 2025 also lost the writer and journalist Juan González Febles. Cubanet summarized his legacy with these words: "With the death of Víctor Manuel Domínguez, one of the most persistent voices of independent journalism in Cuba disappears, an author who for decades narrated, from the Island and despite censorship, the everyday reality of a country marked by a lack of freedoms."
Please extend my deepest condolences to your family, friends, and colleagues.
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