1944: Born in Santiago de Cuba. Cuba

1958: Actively opposes Fulgencio Battista's dictatorial regime as a militant of the Socialist Youth;

1961: Begins studies in Political Science. Economic and Philosophy at the University of Havana.

962: Works until 1964, as a political analyst at the ministry of Foreign Affairs.

1965: Works until 1968 as an assistant professor of Philosophy and History of Philosophy at the University of Havana;

1968: Is expelled from the University of Havana, loosing his right to teach in any other Cuban institution, after being accused of organizing a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

1972: Works as a night watchman at a small dry cleaning store to sustain his family, is arrested that same year, accused of continuing his criticism of Castro's policies.

1976: Is one of the small group of dissidents whom founded the first human rights monitoring group in Cuba.

1980: Is arrested and sentenced to five years and nine months of prison after being found guilty of distribution of "enemy propaganda". During his imprisonment (which lasted until December 30th of 1985), he spent long periods of solitary confinement at the infamous "tapladas" in Boniato prison.

1984: While in prison Sanchez is named prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

1986: Just after his release from prison Sanchez resume his work as a human rights monitor. In August of this year, after calling a press conference at his home in Havana to denounce the harassment suffered by several of his colleagues, he his arrested, his home ransacked by the political police and is kept - without legal assistance - in solitary confinement for eight months.

1987: In October, Sanchez proclaims the thesis of National Reconciliation, also creating the Cuban Commission for Human rights and National Reconciliation.

1988: Presents, as the representative of the CCHRNR, a comprehensive report on human rights violations by the Government of Cuba to the United Nations Human Rights Commission's task force, that visits Havana. That same years he obtains from the cuban authorities permission to travel abroad to visit his wife and his two children with permission to return. Is received in Washington by senator Edward Kennedy.

1989: Inspires and participates in the creation of the first human rights organizations umbrella: the Coordinating Group of Cuban Human Rights Organizations. In August, acting as spokesperson for CGCHRO, CODEHU in Spanish, holds a press conference at his home attended by several representatives of the U.S. media, to denounce the abuses and gross irregularities committed by the authorities during the trials against several high ranking military officers, four of whom had been executed only two weeks before. That same night of the conference Sanchez is arrested and a few weeks later summarily tried along with two of his colleagues and sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

1990: While doing his time at the high security prison of Agulca, Human Rights Watch Americas honoured him as one of the seven most distinguished human rights activists in the world. During this ceremony his chair remained empty.

1991: Thanks to intensive international pressure he is released from prison but kept under home arrest for the remaining time of his sentence. The Inter American Press Society gave him one of its annual awards for his defense of freedom of speech. Is one of the founding members of the Cuban Democratic Conference, an umbrella for several dissident organizations, and also inspires the creation of the first independent labour union.

1992: During this period is arrested several times, his home is subjected to violent "acts of repudiation", the organization files are confiscated and his home is vandalized by progovernment mobs. Yet the CCDHRN is able to complete a report on the situation of violations of human rights in Cuba ad to deliver it to the Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, just in time to have it's information included as part of the Rapporteur's Report. On December the 10th, just two hours before being brutally beaten by the political police, Sanchez is able to read on the phone for publication abroad, a declaration demanding from both the Cuban and the U.S? governments compliance with two United Nation Resolutions in connection with issues that affect human rights in the Island.

1993: Travel abroad invited by several political leaders and a head of government. Also visits the United States and in Washington DC. meets with officials and other personalities. Returns to Cuba and is arrested. Is released after receiving threats and warnings in a effort by the government to make him abandon his activities.

1995: Participates actively in the process of organizing Concilio Cubano acting mainly as a counsellor.

1996: The president of France presents him with the Republic of France Human Rights Award. Is officially received by political personalities in France. Is also politically received by the Spanish government and meets with two former heads of Government, Felipe Gonzalez and Adolfo Suarez. Visits his exiled family in the United States.

HIS VISION: Elizardo Sanchez, the only founding member of the Cuban human rights movement that remains living in the Island,has been fighting oppression by civil and pacific means for the past thirty years. What distinguishes him from other cuban freedom fighters of the past is his stubborn insistence in rejecting violence as a way of resolving Cuba's political problems. For his determination in sustaining that any permanent solution, one the will guarantee to cubans the full exercise of the rights proclaimed by the United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 1948, passes through a process of national reconciliation, he's suffered vitriolic attacks both from the Cuban government and the Castroists and from sectors of the Cuban traditional exile community. But thanks to his capacity to endure suffering, his generosity towards his enemies and his consistency in maintaining his ideas, regardless of the pressures exercised against him, his personality is emerging as one that cannot be counted out for finding a positive solution to the Cuban crisis.
This notes have been based on data collected from the archives of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, by a group of the Commission's activists.