René González Sehwerert was born in Chicago on August 13, 1956. On October 6, 1961 his parents, Cándido René González Castillo and Irma Teodora Sehwerert, returned to Cuba with their two sons.

René began primary studies in the José Martí School in Santa María del Mar, east of Havana, with satisfactory results. In 1968, he was admitted to the Military School in Baracoa, west of Havana. But due to health problems he was unable to continue this institute's rigorous academic program.

He began high school in 1972 and in 1973 joined a Workers Contingent in which he took a special high school course for workers. He began teaching classes between 1973 and 1974. It was common practice for high school graduates to teach classes in the early years of the Cuban Revolution when the government was still trying to consolidate the education system

In 1974, although maintaining his status as a US citizen and therefore eligible for exemption from patriotic responsibilities, he presented himself for military service. He was trained as a tank driver, and at the beginning of 1977, after completing his military service, was accepted to go on an internationalist mission to Angola. He completed his mission in 1979, having been decorated for bravery. Between 1979 and 1982 he studied at the Carlos Ulloa School of Aviation, where he graduated as a pilot. He worked as a flight instructor until 1985, when he was designated squadron chief and head of the aeronautics sports sector.

At the end of 1990 he travelled to the United States. In Miami he gained access to different counterrevolutionary organizations that used US territory to organize and carry out terrorist actions against Cuba with the aim of provoking a military confrontation between the two countries. He earned his living as a flight instructor.

His wife Olga Salanueva Arango went to the US in January 1997 to join her husband, accompanied by their eldest daughter, Irma González Salanueva. In 1998, a few months before his detention, the youngest member of the family was born in the US, Ivette González Salanueva.

As a result of René's arrest, Olga and her family began to receive threats as well as psychological and economic pressure to betray her husband and her convictions. She nevertheless decided to stay in the United States to act as an intermediary between René and his country, and to provide him moral support. But due to her unwavering attitude she was imprisoned for 3 months by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and then deported to Cuba in late 2000.

René was charged with Count 1 (general conspiracy) and with failure to register as a foreign agent and sentenced to 15 years.