Yunior García, the artist who called a protest march in Cuba, explains his departure from the island

Cuban opposition artist Yunior García arrived in Spain this Wednesday, after the authorities prevented him from leaving his house on Sunday and carried out acts of repudiation to avoid a march that he had announced alone.

In a message posted on Facebook, the playwright confirmed that, together with his wife, Dayana Prieto, they had “arrived in Spain alive, healthy and with their ideas intact”.

Spanish government sources had previously informed various news agencies of García’s arrival in Madrid “with a tourist visa.”

Later, Cuban official journalists published images of the playwright with a suitcase at the Havana airport.

“Yunior finally marches … as a tourist to Madrid”, titled the official website Cubadebate.

The Cuban government affirmed this Wednesday that there has been no agreement between Havana and Madrid to facilitate the departure of the Cuban dissident’s country.

A representative of the island’s government told the Efe news agency that the Cuban authorities “They have nothing to do with it” with the departure of García and pointed out that the artist would have processed the tourist visa “on his own.”

In a live broadcast on social media with filmmaker Ian Padrón, García confirmed that it was a personal decision.

“The decision was only mine,” said the actor, who indicated that he made it on the 14th and “thinking of objective reasons.”

According to him, he decided to emigrate when he realized that they were not going to put him in jail, but what “they were going to silence him”.

“Their strategy was to silence me, the only way to escape them was this,” he said.

“I broke down, I collapsed,” he said, recalling that he suffered acts of repudiation in his home and that his telephone and internet services were cut off.

Several members of the Archipelago and some people who marched on Monday are in custody.

The circumstances of the trip are not clear at the moment, how the playwright and his partner obtained the tourist visa or how they moved to the airport despite the police surveillance that had been reported outside his house to prevent him from leaving.

In his speech, García, who led the call for the failed march on November 15, did not give details of the preparations for the trip, but claimed that he had applied for a visa “in case they were to arrest me.”

In its social networks, the Spanish embassy recently published that I would not process tourist visas for Cubans until November 30 and that non-essential travel restrictions would be maintained from third countries, including Cuba.

It is also unknown if García and his wife received the vaccines authorized to enter the European Union as tourists.

Since Tuesday, members of the Archipiélago platform, created by García and convener of a frustrated march for November 15, had reported García as “disappeared” after they lost communication with him.

Who is Yunior García

The 39-year-old also actor, has recently become the most visible face of a new current of opposition in Cuba, led by young artists.

García participated in the unprecedented protest that took place on November 27, 2020 in solidarity with members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), another group of artists who were on a hunger strike and were violently evicted by the police.

Then, on July 11, in the framework of the massive protests that took place in the country, García went with another group of artists to the headquarters of the Institute of Radio and Television in Cuba, where they were thrown into a garbage cart. and imprisoned.

It was then that he created Archipelago, the group that carried out an unusual call for a protest on November 15, which was not authorized by the authorities, and which led to an extensive police deployment and numerous acts of repudiation during Sunday and Monday.