Normando Hernández González

Who is Normando Hernández González?

Normando Hernández González is a Cuban writer and journalist who now lives in the United States.

He was the youngest of 75 persons rounded up by Cuban authorities on March 18, 2003, a day that is now commonly known as “Black Spring.” Arrested for having criticized conditions under the Fidel Castro government, he was held for seven years in various prisons, from 2003 to 2010. During his incarceration, he spent long periods in solitary confinement and was subject to beatings and torture.

Released in 2010 as a result of efforts by the Catholic Church and the government of Spain, Hernández spent several months in Madrid, where, he later said, he and his family were treating abusively by Spanish authorities, whom he accused of serving as accomplices to “the Castro brothers.” In 2011 he accepted asylum in the U.S., where he founded the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press and the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights and became a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.