To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
22 year old Cuban journalist, recently graduated from college in Costa Rica blocked by Cuban officials from returning home to Cuba, and forced into exile.
“Karla Pérez González is being prevented from returning to her own country, and to her family, because the Cuban government believes it is acceptable to banish Cubans who criticize them,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director of free expression at risk programs at PEN America. Karla, an independent Cuban journalist and recent college graduate, was stranded in Panama the week of March 19, 2021 after being notified by Havana that she had been banned from returning to her country. She is 22 years old, but this is not her first encounter with the Castro regime's repressive apparatus.
Cuban national Karla Pérez González not allowed by the Castro regime to return to Cuba
In April 2017 when she was an 18-year-old college student in Cuba Karla was "accused of having contacts with the Somos+ (We Are More) Movement and publishing on digital sites critical of the government." This was the grounds claimed for her expulsion from school because according to the Federation of University Students (FEU), “[i]n our universities professionals must be trained who are ever more competent and committed to the Revolution.” Education is not free in Cuba, but subordinated to the demands of a 62 year old dictatorship.
Thanks to journalist Mauricio Muñoz in (the Costa Rican daily) El Mundo she was able to start an internship in Costa Rica in May 2017, and eventually resume her studies in journalism in the Universidad Latina in San Jose, Costa Rica. She completed her studies and graduated in December 2020. Cuban officials allowed her to obtain a valid passport, and pay all the fees to be able to return home with all the proper documents. She boarded her flight, and all appeared fine until her layover in Panama, when Cuban officials informed her that she had been "regulated" and could not return to Cuba.
Cuban spy calls for prosecution of 22 year old journalist and recent college graduate for her writings
Mr. Rene Gonzalez (no relation), a Cuban spy jailed in the US for 13 years for taking part in "active measures" on U.S. soil, and was part of a spy network linked to a terrorist action that killed four, argued on his Facebook page on March 20, 2021 that she should be allowed to return to Cuba, but then put on trial for her writings.
This is not an isolated case.
Between 70,000 and 300,000 Cubans are banned by the Castro regime from returning to their homeland reported The Miami Herald on August 15, 2011 in the article titled "Many Cuban expatriates can't go home again". Despite claims made by both Havana and Washington in 2013 that the Cuban government had liberalized travel to the island, the cases of cruel family separations remained a constant.
In August 2013, Cuban national Blanca Reyes, the representative of the Ladies in White in Europe, complained "that Havana had denied her permission to travel to her homeland and visit her blind, 93-year-old father." Nor was she allowed to see him two months later when he fractured his hip in October 2013, or attend his funeral after he died on October 15, 2013. She had not been able to see her father in nine years because of the regime in Havana, and despite a supposed opening trumpeted in the press at the time.
Blanca Reyes denied the right to return to see her dying father in 2013
Following the Obama Administration's normalization of diplomatic relations with Havana, and his state visit in March 2016 the response from the Cuban government on both the human rights and trade fronts worsened.
Between 1977 and 2015 the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, despite harassment by the secret police, was able to operate without injuries to American diplomats. The Interests section was re-designated an embassy in 2015, and within a year things changed for the worse. A new phenomenon not seen before emerged in November 2016: U.S. diplomats suffering mysterious brain injuries, and no one had (or has) good answers as to what was going on. This led to the shuttering of the U.S. Embassy and the visa office. This has created difficulties for Cubans to see their loved ones and are protesting the closure. However, it is the responsibility of the Cuban government to protect diplomats on their territory, and it appears that they have failed in that duty creating the present situation.
These are the root causes behind the family separations that few are requesting an end to on either side of the Florida Straits, because after 62 years too many have normalized this abnormal regime operating in Cuba.
Cuban families are suffering due to needless separations, but Havana is attempting to spin the blame on the United States, when it is the Castro regime that has the decades long record of separating families, and has failed to protect U.S. diplomats necessitating the evacuation of personnel for their safety. Finally, as the case of Karla Pérez González demonstrates, the Castro regime's idea of citizenship runs afoul of basic international standards, and needs to be condemned.
The plight of Karla Pérez González should clear up any doubts that freedom of expression (Article 19 UDHR), the right to leave and return to your country ( Article 13 UDHR), and the right to an education (Article 26 UDHR) are not recognized as fundamental rights by the Cuban dictatorship, but privileges to be given or taken away depending on the whims of Cuban officials.
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