Cuban activists Marthadela Tamayo and Osvaldo Navarro Veloz, from the Racial Integration Citizens Committee, were unable to board their flight to Los Angeles this Sunday, where they were going to participate in the Civil Society Forum being held within the framework of the Summit of the Americas, which begins this Monday in the Californian city.
The two opponents went to the José Martí International Airport in Havana, where they managed to obtain their American Airlines boarding pass, according to posted on their social networks. However, at immigration they found that State Security had issued an exit ban for both of them, for which they were forced to stay on the Island.
It is the third time that Marthadela Tamayo has been involved in a similar situation, since she was invited to the previous summits in which Cuba did participate –Panama 2015 and Lima 2018–, and was also prevented from attending. Osvaldo Veloz, meanwhile, also tried to travel to the US on another occasion for an event related to human rights and appeared on the list of “regulated” that the regime uses to prohibit opponents from traveling abroad.
These cases are added to those of the journalist María Matienzo, who was also unable to take her flight this Saturday to participate in the Summit, and the activist Saily González
These cases are added to those of the journalist María Matienzo, who was also unable to take her flight this Saturday to participate in the Summit, and the activist Saily González, who denounced last week that he could not attend to the appointment after being informed through his family that he could not pick up his endorsed passport at the US Embassy in Havana. The opponent was also summoned by State Security to remind her that she had an open criminal investigation and days later she was arrested when she was walking with a sweater that claimed freedom for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
Furthermore, the activist Aymara Pena He told this Saturday that State Security had not allowed him to travel to Havana from Sancti Spíritus, where he lives, and had let him know that “no one would participate” in the Ninth Summit of the Americas.
The regional meeting begins this Monday with the absence of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which have not been invited by Washington. In solidarity with these three countries, the presidents of Bolivia and Honduras will also not attend. This Sunday the presence of the leaders of Peru, Panama and Suriname was confirmed, in addition to Colombia, whose attendance was not in doubt.
Among the events held within the framework of the event, Cuba Decide and the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy have convened the Freedom Summit, in which they intend to ask the international community to stop making concessions to the dictatorship and act to support the people, state terrorism and the regime’s crimes against humanity are denounced, as well as the alliance with Russia and the creation of a migration crisis in the United States. In addition, they demand the release of all political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 8 at 6 pm and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, the Chilean senator Javier Macaya and the Mexican deputy Juan Carlos Romero Hicks are invited. The event will be hosted by Rosa María Payá, with the participation of former political prisoner Esteban Rodríguez, and the rapper and co-author of Homeland and Life, the funky.
Before it begins, at 4 pm, there will be a “Cuba Libre” march in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
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