Cuban dissident leader Yunior Garcia after repression in Spain Politics News

He was the founder of an opposition group in the archipelago during major protests that shook Cuba in July.

Cuban dissident, playwright and activist Yunior Garcia has fled to Cuba after the government’s crackdown on protests in Havana and fled to Spain, according to reports.

Garcia and his wife landed at Madrid’s Barajas Airport on Wednesday evening, a Spanish government official told news services, putting an end to the uncertainty over where he was.

“We confirm that he arrived with his wife, with a tourist visa,” a government source told France-Presse.

Garcia, 39, is the founder of the opposition Archipelago group and was the main character The protests shook Cuba in July. Protests against the deprivation of basic goods and the restriction of civil liberties were the largest in Cuba in decades.

The Cuban government has responded with harsh repression and arrested hundreds. This week, on November 15, a demonstration is organized in the capital Havana he was frustrated opposition leaders were arrested and security forces flooded the streets.

Garcia planned to march from central Havana with a white Larrosa in his hand to realize the non-violent nature of the protest movement.

But Garcia’s Havana home was surrounded by supporters of state security and government, and on the day of the planned protests, his neighborhood was quiet.

Social media activists said they had not heard from him since Tuesday morning.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted sources about Garcia as saying that he had fled as a result of the “savage police pressure” he had endured in recent weeks before the planned demonstration.

“I know they will do everything they can to prevent me from being there. Of course, they will try to arrest me. Maybe they will set up surveillance outside my house to get me to leave, ”Garcia told AFP in an interview in Cuba last month.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called on Nov. 15 intimidation tactics From the Cuban government.

“We urge the Cuban government to reject violence and take this historic opportunity to hear the voice of its people instead,” Blinken said.

The archipelago on Tuesday He tried to continue with the protests for 10 days, despite government crackdowns that prevented the rallies. He called on his members to protest individually, dressed in white, creating personal videos and playing pots and pans at night until November 27th.

According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the authorities have removed the press credentials of several journalists in Havana.

The Cuban authorities had it arrested human rights activist Guillermo Farinas on November 12, three days before the planned protest.