Vladimiro Roca Antúnez was born in Havana, Cuba, on 21 December 1942 and was named after early Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.

[5] In August 1996, Roca linked up with three other Cuban professionals who favored change: economist Marta Beatriz Roque, engineer Félix Bonne Carcassés, and attorney René Gómez Manzano, and formed the Working Group for Internal Dissidence.

[6][7] The group published a paper titled "The Homeland Belongs to All", which discussed Cuba's human rights situation and called for political and economic reforms.

[16] The United States, Canada, the European Union, and the Vatican all called for his release, while Amnesty International declared them prisoners of conscience, "detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association".

[17] Roca entered prison an atheist, but was baptized Roman Catholic on 24 September 1999; he credited his new faith with helping him endure imprisonment.

[17] CNN described the early release as "apparently a conciliatory gesture" by Castro ahead of a visit by former American president Jimmy Carter.