The community project ‘Conducta Dade’ made public a video of the former speaker to activate a neighborhood support network.
MIAMI, United States. – A video spread by the community project Dade Conduct showed for the first time the former Cuban broadcaster Rolando Zaldívar on the streets of Miami after his recent release from prison, in a visible state of physical deterioration and vulnerability. The images, published on December 4 on Instagram and Facebook, have unleashed a spontaneous mobilization of Cubans inside and outside the United States to try to locate him and offer him help.
Dade Conduct He explained that part of his team met Zaldívar on public roads, spoke with him to learn about his situation, identify urgent needs and explore forms of community support in the environment where he remains. The page, dedicated to accompanying people with addiction or mental health problems, confirmed that it “spent some time” with the former speaker, with the intention of reaching out and offering help “at this complicated moment in his life.”
The publication details that the video was shared deliberately to activate a neighborhood support network: the objective is for those who live or pass through that area to recognize Zaldívar, greet him, accompany him and contribute to him receiving some type of assistance. The group announced that it will try to locate him again in the coming days to continue the accompaniment, and called for citizen collaboration around the place where he was seen.
The material, which shows Zaldívar very thin, disoriented and apparently living on the street, immediately generated a strong emotional reaction among the followers of Dade Conduct.
The journalist Javier Díaz reported on Facebook that Rolando Zaldívar was arrested in Miami on November 1 for petit theft and possession of cocaine. Another report, from the portal CyberCubapoints out that the Miami-Dade County police file imposed a bond of $150.
“How sad that this word professional is in these conditions. I remember that when I started my career as an announcer he was one of the figures in Cuba that I always admired and later I worked at the same station where he trained,” Díaz lamented on Facebook, sharing before and now images of Zaldívar.
In February 2019, the former broadcaster was arrested in the United States on charges of domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon. At that time, Zaldívar turned to a campaign on the GoFundMe platform to ask for financial support with legal expenses and alleged that he had been the victim of a false accusation.
During the 90s and 2000s, Zaldívar’s voice became recognized in emblematic spaces on Havana radio, especially in the musical program Disco Party 98from Radio Ciudad de La Habana, one of the programs with the highest audience on the station.
Various testimonies collected in the Cuban independent press and on social networks they remember him as a reference for generations of aspiring broadcasters, for his command of language, precise diction and a driving style considered a model of professionalism.
Dade Conductwho in recent years has made visible cases of people with addictions or mental health problems in South Florida and claims to have accompanied recovery processes such as that of the Cuban singer David Montes de Oca, now maintains that its priority is to locate Zaldívar again and articulate sustained support around his case.
