"Of course I dream of seeing my children again, but for now that's not possible. We talk on the phone, write and support one other, even though we're hundreds of kilometers apart," says Roberto Casanueva.

The Cuban national is currently based in Lithuania, after having lived in Belarus for 30 years. "My oldest daughter was born in Cuba in 1989 and we only stayed there for a short time. Then my wife and child moved to Belarus and I joined them there a year later. I worked as a graphic designer and took care of my three children," he recalls.

'Outraged by the widespread voter fraud'

Casanueva was appalled by the presidential election in August 2020, which saw President Alexander Lukashenko claim victory and was widely seen as fraudulent. Like many in Belarus, he took to the streets and joined opposition protests.

"I had been outraged by the widespread voter fraud during the 2000 elections. I got an election notice in the mail at the time and I laughed, because how can they invite me to vote in the elections what I am not even a Belarusian citizen? I thought it must have been a mistake, but it kept happening," he says.

During the 2020 election, friends said they saw his name on a list of eligible voters at one of the polling stations. Casanueva is convinced his fictitious vote was for Lukashenko. This annoyed him, and he refused to remain quiet any longer.

"My residence permit expired in 2020, and I applied for an extension. The Office of Citizenship and Migration put a piece of paper in front of me with several clauses," he recounts. "When I asked what they meant, because I didn't speak the language, they said I had no right to take part in demonstrations and that my residence permit would be revoked and I would be deported to Cuba if I continued to take part in them."

Casanueva initially refused to sign the document and said he would continue to protest. This resulted in his residence permit being revoked, along with his papers. "I was back there a few days later and they presented me with the same piece of paper to sign again. I signed it, thinking it was just a formality and that I would be able to continue going to the demonstrations," he says.

Conditions in jail 'a real test for me'

But in November 2020, shortly before another protest, Casanueva was arrested and detained for 15 days. With his residence permit revoked, the authorities were set to deport him. "My arrest was illegal because the protests hadn't even started yet. No one was around and I was just stood there smoking. I had neither symbols nor flags with me. Nevertheless, a van stopped next to me and I was put in it by the riot police," he recalls.

Casanueva spent over a year in the notorious Okrestina Detention Center in the capital, Minsk, waiting to be deported. Large numbers of opposition demonstrators were beaten and tortured in the facility. "That was a real test for me. I was in a cell with other foreigners, but they were not political prisoners. They were all very different. Some were good and some bad, but you had to get along with everyone."

He says conditions in the cells were terrible. "There was no electricity there. Coffee, tea, sugar, cigarettes — nothing was allowed," he says. "Once a week you were allowed to receive a package, but in the last month and a half they stopped giving me my family's packages." He didn't get any of the food, toothpaste, cigarettes and toilet paper they had sent him.

Sent to Moscow as a 'tourist'

In December 2021, employees at the Citizenship and Migration Department put Casanueva on a plane bound for Moscow. He was banned from entering Belarus for a period of three years, even though he had three children there. "I was sent to Moscow as an alleged tourist because there were no direct flights from Minsk to Cuba," he says. "But after four or five days, the Russian Interior Ministry's database found evidence that I had been deported." 

As a deportee, he wasn't able to get a work visa for Russia. "I had only 30 days to work things out," he said.

Following his deportation, a farewell photo with his young son appeared on social media. "I wasn't really thinking about photos at the time. The picture was very emotional and wasn't staged. I hadn't seen my son for over a year," Casanueva recounts. He said he was very worried at this point and had to reassure his son that everything would be OK.

'I wanted my voice to be heard'

A month later, Casanueva found himself in Vilnius thanks to the Belarusian Solidarity Foundation, BYSOL. Under no circumstances doe he want to go back to Cuba.

"Cuba is exactly the same regime as Belarus, only worse," he says. Thanks to Freedom House, a US nonprofit, he was able to obtain a Lithuanian visa on humanitarian grounds. Casanueva says he is grateful for the help provided to persecuted Belarusians and others.

He is now working as a graphic designer in Lithuania. Despite everything he had to endure over the past year, he still says he does not regret supporting the Belarusian protest movement.

"I wanted to express my opinions and to protest what was happening in Belarus," he says. "If we are talking about things I regret, the only thing I regret was that I did so little. I would have liked to have done more."

This article has been adapted from German