Spain confirms it helped Cuban activist flee his country

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The Spanish government helped Cuban activist Yunior Garcia flee his country and travel to Spain, Spanish minister Felix Bolanos confirmed on Thursday.

Speaking to Spanish broadcaster Onda Cero, Bolanos said Spain facilitated his travel to Spain “with documentation,” but avoided talking more about the process.

“What we did was a way of helping guarantee that this person wouldn’t have difficulties [in Cuba],” he said.

Garcia, a playwright and activist, was one of the main organizers of anti-government protests that were expected to take place on Monday.

But Cuban authorities had prohibited the protests, saying the organizers had close links to the US government.

On Sunday, Garcia said around 200 police surrounded the home of his in-laws where he was staying and cut off his internet, as they did to other leading dissidents. Some activists were also arrested.

“I wasn’t prepared for it to be so difficult. It changed my life. When you really think that they could stone your house or drag you and your family members down the stairs, when you experience things that I can only compare with fascism, you begin to feel rage,” Garcia said in a YouTube interview with filmmaker Ian Padron on Wednesday.

The isolation of activists combined with heavy police presence on the streets successfully crushed the protests.

Garcia said he decided to leave Cuba on his own. He had previously solicited a tourist visa to Spain thinking he would be arrested.

“When I saw they didn’t arrest me, I knew it was part of their strategy to create suspicions, break trust within the community. They would keep me at home, cut off my internet and silence me. The only way I could avoid being silenced was to escape,” he explained.

He said he is not giving up the fight and will not apply for asylum in Spain. “I need to fulfill my mission, bringing freedom and returning,” he added.

In July, a series of rare protests broke out in the communist nation. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to call for freedom and criticize the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.