14ymedio, Madrid, 17 November 2021 — “We arrived in Spain, alive, healthy and with our ideas intact.” This is what the Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera reported in his first communication since he landed in Madrid this Wednesday, at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time (8:00 a.m. Cuban time) on an Iberia flight, together with his wife, Dayana Prieto. In a post published on Facebook, the activist, one of the leaders of the Archipiélago platform and the main promoter of the 15N (15 November) Civic March for Change, thanks the “many people who have made this trip possible.”
“I have been without communication for several days and I need to update myself on the situation of other members of Archipiélago,” explains García, about whom nothing was known since Sunday, when the security forces prevented him from carrying out his plan to march through the streets of Havana. The playwright also announces that “very soon” he will speak about his “odyssey.”
Archipiélago learned of the news of García Aguilera’s departure from the Europa Press agency, which had the scoop, and reported that it would offer a statement as soon as it had “some first-hand information.”
According to El País, diplomatic sources declared that “discreet arrangements had been made for García’s trip for days, that he had a valid long-term visa to enter Spain,” and that leaving the country is “at his own request,” which has not been confirmed since the playwright has not offered his own explanation.
The same newspaper, based on “sources close to García,” says that the “decision” was due to “brutal police pressure suffered in recent weeks.”
A representative of the Cuban government assured in statements to Efe that there has been no agreement between Havana and Madrid to facilitate the dissident’s departure from the country, that the Cuban authorities “have nothing to do” with that departure of García Aguilera and that the activist would have processed the tourist visa on his own.
In order to enter Spain, one of the requirements imposed on all travelers from Cuba – along with those from all areas considered at risk in relation to covid-19 – must present a negative PCR test, carried out within 48 hours, prior to their arrival in Spanish territory. There is no record that, since Sunday, García Aguilera and Prieto left their home for this purpose.
García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, slept at home on Monday and went “for a walk” on Tuesday morning, relatives who visited the opponent’s home around midnight that same day told 14ymedio.
The mother of the playwright’s wife, visibly nervous, told this newspaper that it is unlikely that someone would break into the house and that García Aguilera’s plan was not to open the gate at the door of his house to any stranger. What they feared was that during their walk there had been an arrest.
The neighborhood where García Aguilera lives with his family, La Lisa, which was completely militarized between Sunday and Monday, presented total calm last night and, apparently, the surveillance had been lifted.
The Archipiélago platform declared the opponent and his wife missing on Tuesday, after a collaborator repeatedly knocked on the door of their house at around 6:00 in the evening without obtaining a response, and then asked for proof of life. Hours later, he confirmed his concern and urgently demanded proof that the couple was in good condition.
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