Madrid Spain.- Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch denounced the recent ban on activist Omara Ruiz Urquiola from entering Cuba.
From the Viva22 Festival, held in Madrid this weekend, Tertsch stated: “Once again this scandalous and obscene violent way of denying the rights of Cubans to leave their homeland and to enter their homeland.”
“It is one more indignity that we know, but until the dictatorship ends, it will not change. In the meantime, we need to put that pressure on the regime by the European Union and national democratic governments. Enough of this absolutely tragic situation,” he added.
The MEP was with the Cuban activists Lázaro Mireles and Ariel Ruiz Urquiola.
The latter, brother of Omara Ruiz, explained that his sister intended to return to the island this Saturday to help her mother, a resident of Pinar del Río, who “is one of the direct victims of Hurricane Ian.”
“How is it possible that this government, which I call misgovernment, can ask the European Parliament and the United States Congress for financial aid to help the victims when it does not allow its own children to enter to help their parents?” he questioned. Ari Ruiz Urquiola.
MEP @hermanntertsch He denounces, together with Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, the refusal to return Omara Ruiz Urquiola to Cuba this afternoon from the Miami airport, please let’s make this viral complaint. pic.twitter.com/asYTwJqY3a
– Lázaro Mireles (@lachy77) October 8, 2022
On October 8, Omara Ruiz Urquiola, who was in the United States to receive medical treatment, was prevented by Southwest airlines from boarding the plane that would take her to Cuba, alleging that the Cuban government would not let her return.
In a video recorded from the Fort Lauderdale airport, north of Miami, the opponent stated: “For the third time they won’t let me return to Cuba. (…) The attitude reveals not only the violation of my rights by the Government of Cuba, but also the complicity of the authorities of this country. I say this knowingly, because now they are involved in ‘engagement 2.0’, in expanding commercial relations, in expanding flights, for example, of this airline. People like me are left in the middle of this plot.”
He also assured that “I would continue to insist”: “I’m not going to get tired. I am Cuban. I have my house, my life in Cuba, I have nothing outside of Cuba”.
Last June the same airline prohibited him from boarding a plane to return to Cuba by order of the island’s authorities. On July 12 he experienced a similar situation.
After the second ban, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola made a hunger and thirst strike for 12 days to demand a statement from the United Nations about the violations of her sister’s human rights.
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