14ymedio, Havana, 5 June 2025 — Cuban journalist and opponent Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived this morning in Miami with his wife, Eralidis Frómeta, after being forced out by the Cuban regime, ending the three years that the reporter had been in prison. “I received with deep emotion the news of the arrival in Miami of my friend and Cuban political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca. After almost three years of unjust imprisonment, Yuri is finally free, although under the painful context of exile. I am filled with hope and relief,” wrote Normando Hernández, general director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP).
Valle Roca obtained humanitarian parole through his wife at the United States embassy in Havana, a condition imposed by the Government to release him in exchange for exile.
Valle Roca obtained humanitarian parole through his wife at the United States embassy in Havana, a condition imposed by the Government to release him in exchange for exile
“The arrival of Valle Roca in Miami marks the end of a painful chapter and the hope of a new beginning. His release is a reminder of the importance of surveillance and international pressure in the fight for human rights and freedom of expression. We celebrate his freedom, and the fight for justice, human rights, freedom and democracy in Cuba continues,” ICLEP stated on its website.
Valle Roca was scheduled to land in Miami at 10:35 on Wednesday on an American Airlines flight that was delayed.
The journalist, arrested in June 2021, was sentenced 13 months and later to five years in prison for the crimes of “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature and resistance.”
Valle Roca, 62, is the nephew of opposition leader Vladimiro Roca, who died last year, and the grandson of communist leader Blas Roca Calderío. In the time he has been imprisoned, the reporter has suffered the 15 types of torture described by the Madrid-based organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), which presented a document to the UN denouncing patterns of ill-treatment in Cuban prisons.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
