Oscar Casanella is a Cuban activist and biochemist by profession, born in Havana, Cuba, on February 22, 1979.
Casanella, who worked as a professor at the University of Havana and an associate researcher at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiology (INOR), began to face pressure in 2013 to sever his ties of friendship with political opponents; otherwise, his labor rights would be restricted, and he was even threatened with expulsion from INOR, which ultimately occurred in June 2016 under the pretext of labor misconduct. That same year, he was also expelled from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Havana, where he served as an adjunct professor, without receiving a salary.
Since then, the young scientist, who has unsuccessfully appealed to the Labor Justice Organ (OJL) of the company MEDICUBA regarding the unfairness of his dismissal, has dedicated himself to denouncing the abuses and sanctions he has faced from the State Security Organ and the deputy director of INOR, Lorenzo Anasagasti.
"Many Cubans are placed in a significant ethical and personal conflict by the dictatorship, forcing them to choose between their profession and their personal life and beliefs," Casanella said in relation to the controversial friendship that connects him with Ciro Javier Díaz Penedo, Gorki Luis Aguila Carrasco, Lia Villares, Ariel Urquiola, among others.
In August 2019, he joined other professors and university students in a letter to the Government, urging it to comply with the law and put an end to discriminatory and punitive measures in the country after the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Higher Education (MES), Martha del Carmen Mesa Valenciano, published a controversial text stating that "the Cuban university professor must be a 'defender of our political convictions'."
Casanella, through her social media, highlights the food scarcity faced by the Cuban people by posting images of the long lines that Cubans endure to obtain any food, as well as other events that illustrate the worsening conditions, unsanitary situations, and the precariousness of a suffocated society that demands changes in government management.
Like other Cuban activists fighting for change in Cuba, he has personally endured the repressive violence of Cuban agents. In 2019, while participating in the independent march against homophobia, he was struck in the chest and abdomen by four officers, resulting in multiple injuries that required stitches and hospital care. He was later detained.
In December 2019, as he was about to accompany the mother of Cuban biologist and activist Ariel Urquiola, he was detained by agents of the Cuban police to prevent him from going to the airport.
