Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat is a Cuban political scientist born in Havana, Cuba in 1965, known for being the Secretary General of the NGO Cuban Democratic Directorate, which he co-founded in 1990. This organization, as stated by the director himself, works in support of the resistance within Cuba, backing the various groups engaged in civic resistance against the Cuban communist regime. Additionally, the Directorate focuses on the cases of the dozens of political prisoners on the island. The DDC has a radio station that has been broadcasting via shortwave to Cuba for 14 years: Radio República.
Gutiérrez Boronat junto a su familia se instaló en los Estados Unidos desde Cuba en 1971. Posee un doctorado en Filosofía de Estudios Internacionales de la Universidad de Miami, junto con títulos de posgrado y licenciatura en Ciencias Políticas y Comunicaciones de la Universidad Internacional de la Florida.Es además catedrático y un laureado escritor
Those who know Boronat describe him as a Catholic by conviction, possessing an encyclopedic political culture and a deep knowledge of Cuban history. His efforts for the establishment of democracy on the island have made him one of the most influential Cuban voices in the United States.
On July 10, 2020, he met with Donald Trump in Miami to request the "criminal prosecution of Raúl Castro Ruz and the establishment of an International Tribunal to judge the Castro regime for crimes against humanity." His organization is already processing an international lawsuit against the Cuban government for such crimes.
Gutiérrez-Boronat added in his meeting with Trump that "Cuba is the base of communist occupation in Venezuela and Nicaragua. If the Cubans continue to receive support like the one you are giving them to free Cuba, the entire hemisphere will breathe easier, including the United States."
In 2019, he co-led a series of lectures at the Catholic University and the Pontifical Javeriana University in Cali on the dangers of socialism.
Gutiérrez is also the director of the successful campaign to end cruise tourism on the Island.
In 2018, Bolsonaro met with the Cuban opposition figure whom he described as "one of the main denouncers of the atrocities committed by the Cuban dictatorship."
Boronat is also included in the list of exiled leaders who, in 2019, publicly requested President Trump to fully enforce the Helms-Burton Act against foreign companies using property expropriated by the Cuban government.
