Jorge Luis García Pérez

Who is Jorge Luis García Pérez?

Jorge Luis García Pérez is a human right and democracy activist in Cuba.

Antúnez was jailed for 17 years from 1990 to 2007. Other dissidents have referred to Antúnez as Cuba's Nelson Mandela.

During a demonstration in March 1990 State Security heard him saying that communism is an error and a dystopia. Saying that was a crime and he was sentenced to five years in prison. In prison, he refused to wear the uniform and participate in "communist re-education", which meant a violent beating, nine months in solitary confinement and more years in prison. He escaped from prison to see his sick mother, but could not find her and was free only for a day. His mother died a month later. He was found guilty of "attempted sabotage". One of the charges was failure to respect the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Antúnez continued nonviolent resistance in prison, where he gave birth to a political prisoner group named after Pedro Luis Boitel, an imprisoned dissident who died in a hunger strike in 1972. His courage received worldwide attention. Pope John Paul II, when visiting Cuba in 1998, asked the regime to release him.