The Cuban regime expelled the opposition member Jorge Cervantes García on Wednesday, September 10, without his family knowing and in a process characterized by secrecy.
Cervantes García, father of two small children, was exiled without prior notice, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH). The opponent was escorted by the authorities until he boarded a plane, and his destination is still unknown.
He reported that he will provide more details when he deems it appropriate, according to a publication on social media by the OCDH.
Cervantes, a political prisoner and member of the opposition group Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), is an uncomfortable figure for the Cuban dictatorship due to his denunciations on social media. As a result, he has been a frequent target of State Security and has faced threats and imprisonments.
Last February, he sent a strong message to the Castro regime, denouncing the lack of freedom, the increase in repression, and the widespread shortages affecting the population.
Cervantes García stated that the government can finally open the doors to democracy for them, "so that everyone, not just that little group, can have what cost so much blood and sacrifice."
Also, in March of this year, he was arbitrarily arrested and, as a protest, he began a hunger strike to demand his release.
The name of this opponent is added to that of other people whom the regime has deemed uncomfortable and has taken to this extreme of separating them from their country, their culture, and their family in an arbitrary manner.
What have other Cuban dissidents said about their exile from the island?
The names of Cuban nationals living in exile make up a considerable list. Many of them have expressed their opinions on the necessity of living outside their country.
The independent Cuban journalist Héctor Valdés Cocho, exiled in 2021, criticized the Cuban government for using exile as another method to "punish" those who dissent from Castroist ideology.
"Exile must stop being a method of punishment for dissent. No one should have to experience the forced departure from their land for the simple reason of wanting to save it. A government that uses or practices such abhorrent actions ceases to be a government and becomes a dictatorship," he reflected on his Facebook profile at that time.
On the subject, the Cuban writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez, exiled in 2022, said: "Although one suspects it in advance, or one was quite aware that this could be the immediate result, it caused me dismay. It was a kind of shock, because obviously one thing is the possibility of the fact and another thing is the fact as such."
Activists Anamely Ramos and Omara Ruiz Urquiola were also exiled by the regime, and Álvarez referred to these events as the formation of a "systemic narrative and repressive methods that have lasted for decades and have affected tens of thousands of Cubans. In the more recent history, there are the already sadly normalized cases of doctors and health personnel in general or sports professionals who have defected," he commented.
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