Yunior Garcia: ‘Now the Important Thing is Those Who are Detained Inside Cuba’

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Leaving Cuba was a “personal” decision that Yunior García Aguilera made at the end of the day on Sunday, November 14, he said this Wednesday. Traveling to Spain was “the only way he had” so that he would not be silenced and thus avoid being annulled by the regime, he said in a conversation with the filmmaker Ián Padrón through his program Right to Reply.

The coordinator of the Archipiélago platform said that his departure has been “celebrated as a victory for” the Government, but what it really won was “the terror that they have implanted. One has to wonder how long that terror can win.” The conversation from Madrid takes place two days after the scheduled day for the Civic March for Change in Cuba on November 15, an initiative that the regime managed to prevent through a coup of repression.

The activist reported that he went to the Spanish Embassy “to request a visa” in expectation of being detained, and thus having the option of leaving the country. “If my only weapon has always been the word, I had to find a way to defend that word.”

He said that a moment before the link with Padrón he had had “a difficult dialogue with the rest of the members of the Archipiélago.” I understand, he acknowledged, that “this is a difficult decision.”

During the conversation, he also mentioned that since the early hours of Sunday he was harassed at home and admitted that “he was not prepared for it” despite having previously faced violent repression. García revealed that the only person in his building who collaborated and participated in the act of repudiation against him was the president of the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution], who even offered his apartment so his windows could be covered with Cuban flags. “There were no people from the neighborhood, but there were faces I recognized from the 11J (11 July) team in front of ICRT,” he said, referring to the group that insulted him on that day of protests before he was arrested.

“My family was present, (…) The last few days have perhaps been more difficult than I could have anticipated. When you have a situation of solitary confinement for so long (…) you enter a state where you start to worry not for your life, but for how to face that life with dignity,” he declared.

García Aguilera said that being away from the island does not mean that he is going to renounce his ideas, his principles, his objectives, but he did point out that these are moments that changed his life. “When you experience things that I can only compare to fascism, a rage begins within you that is very difficult to control.”

His aim is to “be useful” and then return to his country, as well as working for the liberation of the Archipiélago activists who were arrested and whose whereabouts are still unknown. “I’m not going to rest until those people are free and safe.” He insists that, although everyone “is waiting for a statement from Yunior,” now “the important thing is those who are detained inside Cuba, who is not allowed to leave their home, who is without internet, who cannot speak.”

He announced that this Thursday he will make statements that will reveal the state of terror that is being experienced in Cuba: “I am going to tell everything. It will be a very important day.”

Yunior is in Spain in the company of his wife Dayana Prieto in a place that he did not want to specify for security reasons for the friends who have provided him with shelter. “We will be here for the next two weeks, in a place on the outskirts of Madrid.” The activist’s objectives remain “intact,” despite the “very hard” moments he has lived through.

See also:
Yunior Garcia Aguilera Will March ‘Alone’ on 23rd to Malecon this Sunday the 14th’

University of Havana Plans a ‘Great University Fair’ for the Same Place Yunior Garcia Will March on Sunday

Cuban State Security Announces To Yunior Garcia That He Will Go To The Combinado Del Este Prison