Leaving Cuba was a “personal” decision that Yunior García Aguilera made at the end of the day on 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 assured in a conversation with the filmmaker Ián Padrón through his program Right to Reply.
The coordinator of the Archipelago platform said that his departure has been “celebrated as a victory for” the Government, but what he 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 said that he went to the Spanish Embassy “to request a visa” in view of being arrested, 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 Archipelago.” 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, who even gave his apartment to have his windows covered with Cuban flags. “There were no people from the neighborhood but I did recognize the faces of the 11J team in front of Icrt,” he said, referring to the group that insulted him on that day before being arrested.
The last few days have perhaps been more difficult than you might anticipate. When you have a situation of solitary confinement for so long (…) you enter a state in which you begin to worry not about your life, but about how to face that life with dignity, “he declared.
“My family was present, (…) The last few days have been perhaps 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 warned 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 they were 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.”
The aim is to “be useful” and then return to his country, as well as working for the liberation of the activists from the Archipelago 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 exists 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 a blanket. “We are going to be here in the next two weeks, in a place on the outskirts of Madrid.” The activist’s objectives remain “intact”, despite the “very hard” moments he experienced.
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