A journalist requests refuge in Costa Rica after being prevented from returning to Cuba

Cuban journalist Karla Pérez González requested refuge in Costa Rica on Thursday after she could not return to her country due to a government impediment that she describes as “arbitrary” and “exile”.

“I made the formal request for refuge. The Costa Rican authorities behaved in an excellent way, they understood that it was a humanitarian issue. Tomorrow I have an appointment for a first interview in Migration,” declared Pérez González as she left the Juan Santamaría airport, located on the outskirts of San José.

The young woman arrived in Costa Rica in 2017 to study journalism and when she finished her degree at the end of 2020, she decided to return to Cuba to be with her family, which she planned to do this Thursday.

The journalist took a flight from San José to Panama without problems, but when she tried to board the plane that would take her from Panama to Havana, she was not allowed to board on the orders of a Cuban Migration official who did not identify himself.

“I fulfilled all the legal requirements that my country requested and when I go to board the flight to Havana they require me and an official of the Copa airline tells me that I cannot travel, not because of airline issues or legal requirements, but Cuba orders that I am prohibited from entering my country”, declared Pérez.

After being stranded in Panama for several hours without an entry visa to that country, she returned to Costa Rica where she requested refuge.

Pérez González assured that her parents and sister are, like her, “devastated”, but she was hopeful that she will see them again soon, even if it is not in Cuba.

“I am not the first, we are dozens or hundreds who are denied entry to Cuba and this is a measure forever, I am Cuban and cannot enter my country. It is a purely political decision. Four years ago I was expelled from the Cuban higher education and that is why I came to study here (in Costa Rica),” she explained.

According to her, the expulsion from the university was due to her participation in the blog “Somos +”, considered critical by the Cuban government.

The young woman said that she never thought that she would have to live “one of these arbitrariness” and assured that for her it is an “exile.”

“Their human rights violations are overcome. This is cruelty against me,” she lamented and recalled that she did all the respective procedures at the Cuban embassy in Costa Rica to return to her country and that they did not put any obstacles there.

“That makes everything more violent because at the last moment (they denied him entry). It is total torture,” she said.

IAPA CONDEMNATION

The journalist says that she wants to practice journalism “with more force” and that she dreams of one day returning to her country, although she considers it a very distant possibility.

“Of course I want to return to Cuba but being realistic I don’t think that opportunity will exist. As long as the dictatorship continues, that is not an opportunity for me. My primary dream at this time is to reunite with my family, no matter where,” she said.

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) issued a statement on Thursday condemning the Cuban government for preventing the entry of Karla Pérez González, which it considered “a new violation of human rights” by the Havana regime.