As a result of the political persecution against him, activist and professor Ariel Ruiz Urquiola was expelled from the University of Havana

Between 2001 and 2016, the activist and professor Ariel Ruiz Urquiola worked at the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana as a professor in the department of Conservation Genetics teaching the subjects of Diploma I and II work and Chemistry-Physics. During his years as a professor, he never received any evaluations where he was rated as bad or regular in any academic course. Professor Ruíz was expelled from the University on the grounds of "repeated unjustified absences from work, which constitute a serious breach of labour discipline". The professor considers that the real causes of his expulsion were intolerance to the free expression of thought and political ideology that is not in line with the prevailing system in Cuba, and a settling of accounts carried out in the framework of a political persecution of which he has been a victim since 2003 when he refused to sign the document of the Cuban Intellectuals for the World that justified the shooting of three boys who had hijacked a boat with the intention of leaving the country. According to the activist, his expulsion from the institution also was proposed in 2008. On that occasion for revealing information approved by the University of Havana's Marine Research Center about a research project on sea turtle fishing financed by WWF-Canada at an international congress on the biology and conservation of sea turtles in Baja California, Mexico. The professor also denounced that professional political persecution has been joined by medical persecution. In 2005 when he took over the oncological treatment of his sister, Omara Isabel Ruiz Urquiola, who was evicted that same year by the doctors and institutions of the Ministry of Public Health. Finally, the activist considered that his expulsion was also motivated by the envy generated by the fact that he was leading the only international collaboration project between the Center of Marine Research of the University of Havana and the Museum of Natural History of Berlin-Humboldt University with a budget of around a quarter of a million euros.