Following what he described as a “forced exile” from the Caribbean nation, a Cuban journalist landed in the United States on Wednesday.
For “the alleged crimes of ‘enemy propaganda and resistance,'” Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca was recently sentenced to three years in prison, according to Cubalex, a human rights organization based in Miami, Florida, which is home to a sizable diaspora from the communist-run island.
“It is a forced exile, I had to leave. If I go back to Cuba, I’m not going to prison I’m already dead,” Valla Roca told reporters upon his arrival at Miami International Airport.
Exiling dissidents has long been a political tactic in Cuba, which has been governed by a communist government since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959.
A number of intellectuals and artists who belonged to the San Isidro Movement, who organized a historic demonstration in front of the Ministry of Culture in November 2020, were forced to leave Cuba and are not allowed to return.
During his two-day visit to the United States in November, Valle Roca’s spouse had a meeting with EU Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore.
Following widespread demonstrations in 2021, some 500 individuals were imprisoned, some for as long as 25 years; human rights organizations estimate that number to be as high as 700.
As of last year, the US Embassy and human rights organizations said that Cuba was detaining about 1,000 political prisoners.
