Both the Cuban and Spanish authorities appear to have tacitly approved the opposition leader’s departure to Madrid in the background. García, who is a playwright, describes the trip he and his wife took to Spain as a movie. “Which I’ll talk about later. The Cuban police never showed up at the airport either.”
García denies that he has applied for political asylum in Spain. “Absolutely not. Once my anger has cooled, I will return to Cuba.”
Demonstration
Protest group Archipiélago organized a demonstration last Monday. In Havana’s Parque Central, protesters are said to lay flowers at the monument to folk hero José Marti.
Cuban authorities banned the demonstration and announced measures against the participants. In response, García said he was going to walk around Havana alone and in white clothes. He called on others to do the same. But in the end this protest was also prevented by the Cuban government, with a blockade of García’s house.
decapitated pigeons
In July, Archipiélago was behind the largest civil rights demonstration ever witnessed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. From that moment on, according to García, the problems for him and other members of the group also started. “Before that, they had made life impossible for me by cutting off the phone and the internet from me, my wife, and other family members.”
Two decapitated pigeons on the doormat of his house were the deciding factor to leave. “It’s not about me,” García assured at the press conference, which was also attended by many media from South America. “I am not a statue, I am not bronze. I have fear. I bear responsibility.”
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