MIAMI, Florida (July 1, 2004)—Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, one
of the most prominent members of Cuba’s independent press who spent six
years in prison for reporting in defiance to governments controls, is due to travel
to the United States shortly as a political refugee, he told the Inter American
Press Association in a telephone call from Havana today. In the call, he thanked
the organization for its “unflinching support and solidarity.”
Arévalo Padrón founded the independent news agency Línea
Sur Press in 1997 in the Cuban province of Cienfuegos. In November of that same
year he was put on trial, convicted and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment
for calling Cuban President Fidel Castro and Vice President Carlos Lage “liars.”
He said that while serving his sentence in the Ariza Prison in Cienfuegos, he
was tortured and subjected to abuse, becoming ill as a result. The IAPA repeatedly
protested his imprisonment and demanded his release, along with that of other
independent journalists still being held in Cuban jails.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information,
Rafael Molina, welcomed the new development following six years of Areevalo
Padrón’s suffering in prison. Molina, from the Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic, newspaper El Nacional, said, “with Arevalo Padron going into
exile a very valuable and necessary person for the struggle for liberty in Cuba
is lost.”
Arévalo Padrón told the IAPA that yesterday (6/30) he was called
to the United States Interests Section in Havana, where he was told that his
request for political asylum had been granted. He has been given permission
by the Cuban government to leave his homeland, which he plans to do on August
25, going first to Cancún in Mexico and from there by air to Miami and
on to Fort Worth, Texas, his final destination. There, he is due to undergo
nasal surgery and treatment for various other ailments he contracted while in
prison.
Arévalo Padrón, who will be accompanied by his wife, Libertad
Acosta Díaz, plans a three-day stopover in Miami en route to Texas. He
has scheduled a press conference at the airport on his arrival here.
To date the independent journalist who has spent most time in prison, Arévalo
Padrón was released on November 13, 2003 and he immediately resumed his
reporting activities. In his call to IAPA officers he thanked the hemispheric
organization and others defending freedom of the press and human rights for
their constant support.
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