Oscar Casanella

Oscar Casanella is a Cuban activist and a biochemist by profession, born in Havana, Cuba, on February 22, 1979.

Casanella, who worked as a professor at the University of Havana and was an associate researcher at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiology (INOR), began facing coercion in 2013 to sever his ties of friendship with political opponents, or else his employment rights would be restricted, and he was even threatened with expulsion from INOR. This expulsion ultimately occurred in June 2016 on the grounds of workplace misconduct. That same year, he was also expelled from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Havana, where he served as an associate professor, without receiving any salary.

Since then, the young scientist, who has unsuccessfully appealed to the Labor Justice Authority (OJL) of the MEDICUBA company regarding the unjustness of his dismissal, has been dedicated to denouncing the abuses and sanctions he has suffered from the State Security Agency and the deputy director of INOR, Lorenzo Anasagasti.

"Many Cubans find themselves in a deep ethical and personal conflict as the dictatorship forces them to choose between their profession and their personal life and beliefs," Casanella said regarding the controversial friendship he shares with Ciro Javier Díaz Penedo, Gorki Luis Aguila Carrasco, Lia Villares, Ariel Urquiola, among others.

In August 2019, together with other professors and university students, he signed a letter urging the Government to uphold the law and put an end to discriminatory and punitive measures in the country. This came after the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Higher Education, Martha del Carmen Mesa Valenciano, published a controversial statement asserting that "the Cuban university professor must be a defender of our political convictions."

Casanella, through their social media, highlights the food scarcity faced by the Cuban people by posting images of the long lines Cubans endure to obtain food, as well as other events that illustrate the worsening conditions, unsanitary situations, and precariousness of a suffocated society that demands changes in government management.

Like other Cuban activists fighting for change in Cuba, he has personally suffered 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 treatment. He was subsequently detained.

In December 2019, while preparing to accompany the mother of Cuban biologist and activist Ariel Urquiola, he was detained by Cuban police to prevent him from going to the airport.