Yunior Garcia Requests Asylum in Spain due to the Impossibility of Returning to Cuba

Yunior García Aguilera a few days after his arrival in Madrid. (EFE/Fernando Villar)

14ymedio biggerEUROPA PRESS (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 17 February 2022 — The playwright Yunior García, one of the most visible faces of the Cuban opposition, has finally chosen to apply for asylum in Spain given the impossibility of returning to the Island, where he would be imprisoned.

“If I were to set foot in Cuba again, I would go to jail, that’s why we decided to apply for asylum,” the opponent told Europa Press. He arrived in Spain with his wife on November 17 thanks to a tourist visa issued by the Spanish government, which authorized him to stay in the country for 90 days.

“What we would like is to return, but it is impossible,” he lamented, trusting that the Spanish government will grant him asylum given his personal circumstances and the persecution he is subjected to on the Island.

García, founder of the Archipelago movement that called for the failed protests planned for November 15 in Cuba, recalled that the case against him is still open and that since his departure from the island the authorities have even proceeded to close the theater group he directed.

“The situation is even worse than when we left,” he stressed, alluding to the fact that this week a total of 20 people, including five minors found guilty of sedition, have been sentenced for up to 20 years in prison for their participation in anti-government protests on July 11.

His plans now include continuing to close ranks among Cuban exiles since “the regime is trying to divide us… We have to ignore the differences, try to establish a more solid alliance and have a concrete proposal for the solution of the conflict in Cuba, not only for the Cubans but also for the international community,” he defended.

He has also been working to strengthen ties with the opposition in Venezuela and Nicaragua, which included contacts, for example, with the Venezuelan opponent Leopoldo López and the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, but he prefers to maintain discretion “until” these efforts are made because there are ” many interests working so that this union does not take place.”

The objective is “to strengthen ties between those of us who want democracy, whether right or left doesn’t matter, we can’t dwell on those differences now because what we don’t have in our countries is democracy,” insisted Garcia. “When we have it perfect, let the right and the left return to their speeches, but now what we are fighting against is dictatorships,” he added.

On the other hand, the opponent insisted on the need to “demolish the myth that there is in Europe and in a good part of Latin America about the Cuban Revolution.”

“It is a product that the regime knew how to sell and that unfortunately many people bought and have been scammed with that myth,” he said. “It is important that people understand that Cubans are suffering” and that what exists in Cuba is a dictatorship, he added.

Regarding his relations with the Spanish political parties, he reiterated his willingness to speak with everyone, although to date he acknowledged that he has not yet spoken with any member of the Podemos Party.

In any case, he trusts that the Spanish political class will be able to talk about Cuba without doing it in electoral terms, “that the parties understand that it is not about using the Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua issue for speeches or internal campaigns.”

“You have to put the human being at the center and understand that these are countries where there are people who are suffering,” he said, insisting that “it is not about political speeches, it is about human beings who do not have freedom or rights.”

“That is the main thing, beyond any ideology or any use that can be made of this issue for partisan interests,” he concluded.

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