Yoani Sanchez is a Cuban blogger and political dissident. Her blog, Generacion Y, offers an uncensored look into life under the Castro regime.

Sanchez was born in Cuba when the Soviet Union was its primary financial benefactor. But she became disillusioned with Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union and left the country in 2002 for Switzerland.

She returned to Cuba in 2004 and helped publish digital magazines, Consenso and Convivencia, to give voice to her country’s political dissidents, and led the charge by publishing her blog in spite of countrywide censorship and controls on media.

While almost 25 per cent of people worldwide have access to the internet, only about two per cent of Cubans are online. After her posts became internationally popular, the Cuban government blocked the blogging network DesdeCuba, along with a number of other political blogs started on the model of Sanchez’s.

Among other honours and prizes, Time Magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

In an exclusive interview with The Stream, Yoani Sanchez discusses the state of Cuba’s political opposition and the challenges facing bloggers and journalists reporting in Cuba.