The United States returned to Havana the young Cuban Yuri García despite his request for asylum for being a victim of harassment by the regime. Garcia spent two weeks on a US Coast Guard ship waiting for a response, but was finally returned, along with other migrants, on September 2, confirmed a note from yucabyte Posted this Thursday.
The young man assures that he had previously fantasized about migrating, but “never seriously” until the attacks and harassment by the regime worsened. At the end of August 2022, García left the island along with other people in a rustic boat, an escape route that hundreds of Cubans have used this year to flee the economic crisis, food shortages and persecution.
On the second day of sailing, when the engine had already stopped working and they were left without GPS, they were rescued by the US Coast Guard and transferred to a ship. There the group of migrants asked the officers for asylum, who “listened to us, but did not give us the opportunity.”
“I feel that they did not give me the opportunity to show proof that I am politically persecuted, that they did not take my case seriously”
“I thought that, at least, they were going to investigate, but now I think they only made a show. I feel that they did not give me the opportunity to show the evidence that I am politically persecuted, that they did not take my case seriously,” he told yucabyte.
García is one of the many persecuted by the regime after he took out a poster with the phrase “Martí Sí, Marx No”, in front of the Communist Party building in the province of Mayabeque, in the framework of the deceased Civic March for Change on November 15, 2021 (15N).
The 30-year-old Cuban was arrested by authorities for four days and fired from the state trucking base where he worked as a technician. After months of pressure and from his colleagues, he was reinstated in his position in January 2022, but, says García, the surveillance, psychological harassment and summons to interrogations did not stop.
The last call occurred on July 11, 2022, when the authorities expected a new demonstration for the first anniversary of the massive 11J protests. That interrogation was to “warn me that if I went out to protest, I could face three to seven years in prison,” Garcia said.
Despite the danger, hundreds of Cubans have left the island this year on small rafts bound for Florida, while others migrate by air to Nicaragua, and then continue on to the United States. García assured that economically he could not buy a ticket, so his only option was to do it by sea.
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