Cuban worker Yliss Torres Cruz He said that he “prefer to die before returning to Cuba” during a telephone call he made with the Univision channel from an immigration detention center in Broward County, Florida.
The former prosecutor had fled the communist island with others on a raft the previous May and was intercepted by the United States Coast Guard and taken to the Guantanamo Naval Base, where she remained until December 11, when she received a Transferred to the Immigration Detention Center. With the risk of being deported to South Florida.
Faced with this situation, Ylice Torres Cruz denounced the alleged irregularities in her political asylum process. The activist was charged with assault on a “public authority” in 2021 for confronting a spokesman for the Castro dictatorship Humberto López when he was allegedly leaving his boyfriend’s house.
The activist, who belongs to the Patriotic Union of Cuba and a promoter of Cuba Decide, has an appointment before an immigration judge on January 12, the day she will learn what her future holds. However, she is very clear that returning to Cuba is not an option for her.
“I would rather die than return to Cuba (…) I don’t think it’s fair that all the activism I’ve done, all the things I’ve gone through, they’ve been able to keep me there for so long ” bring me here to my husband”he told Univision in a phone call.
For his part, her husband, Pavel Pérez, urged the US government to grant asylum and not deport Yves Torres Cruz, as that would be the worst thing that could happen to her.
“She needs to be at home with me, in so much pain”He added.
The man confirmed that after all the repression experienced by the opposition within Cuba for her activism for human rights against the Castro dictatorship, he does not understand his wife’s position.
