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Cuban dissident says flight to Spain is ‘blow’ to opposition

AFP

Leading Cuban protest leader Yunior Garcia acknowledged Thursday that his flight to Spain following pressure from the authorities on the island was a “painful blow” to the opposition movement.

Garcia, who arrived unexpectedly in Madrid Wednesday with activist wife Dayana Prieto on a tourist visa, added he has no intention to seek asylum in Spain, and had left Cuba because he faced a “living death”.

The 39-year-old actor and playwright is the founder of online discussion group Archipelago which had called for protests in Cuba on Monday that were blocked by the Cuban government.

“I understand that it was a painful blow,” he told a news conference in Madrid when asked about the disappointment expressed by other Cuban dissidents over his abrupt departure.

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“I will eventually forgive myself, perhaps for not having had the courage to turn myself to stone or become a bronze statute,” he added.

“Maybe I ask forgiveness for being human, for thinking about my wife and my life, and for escaping what was surely going to be a living death, because that is what awaited me in Cuba.”

Garcia has been the target of a relentless weeks-long campaign to discredit him in Cuban state media and pro-government blogs after Archipelago notified the authorities of the planned march.

He attempted to march alone on Sunday but was prevented from leaving his apartment after police and government supporters surrounded the building. 

When he tried to communicate with journalists and others by displaying a white rose at his window, people standing on the roof unfurled a huge Cuban flag to cover the window.

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Garcia told the Madrid news conference that his entire family had been “harassed” by the regime and his supporters, his wife told she would lose her teaching post and two decapitated pigeons were left outside his house.

– ‘Totally silenced’ –

“It was something orchestrated by state security forces” to scare us, he said, adding he plans to return to Cuba with his wife once their lives there are no longer “in danger”.

“I am certain the strategy of the regime was to keep me locked at home…totally silenced…the only thing I have is my voice and I could not remain quiet. Someone has to say what is happening in Cuba.”

During an interview with Onda Cero radio, Spanish minister for the presidency Felix Bolanos said Madrid had helped Garcia “with documentation” to facilitate his travel to Spain, without giving further details.

“What we did was a way of helping guarantee that this person would not have difficulties (in Cuba),” he said.

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Born in the eastern city of Holguin, Garcia was long known only in the arts world — for his plays, as well as his television and movie scripts.

But since November 27, 2020, when hundreds of artists demanded more freedom of expression at a protest in Havana, he has taken on another role — one of the faces of a new generation critical of the government.

Cuban authorities have accused Garcia, without offering any proof, of being paid by the United States as part of a plot to destabilise the country, a charge he denies.

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International

Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border

Donald Trump will sign over 200 executive orders this Monday, including declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists on his first day as president, according to U.S. network Fox News.

A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.

The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”

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International

Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.

“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.

“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.

Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”

The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.

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International

Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan

Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.

The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”

This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.

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