The Cuban activist who promoted the 15N march speaks from Spain

Cuban playwright and activist Yunior García Aguilera, who recently called on Cubans to march against the autocratic regime on the island, reported this Wednesday that he is in Spain with his family, after the security deployment of the ruler Miguel Díaz- Canel thwarted the November 15 demonstration.

The 39-year-old opposition leader explained in an interview on YouTube with the

medium

that “the hours without sleep, the harassment, the lack of communication, the threats” that he suffered in the days before November 15 weighed on his decision leaving Havana for Madrid.

"I broke down," he

acknowledged, clarifying that his greatest concern had been the well-being of his family.

[Thousands of people from Florida support the demonstrations in Cuba]

García Aguilera, a member of the Archipelago group, had decided that he would march alone through the streets of Havana on Sunday "on behalf of all citizens who the regime has deprived of their right to demonstrate," after the authorities threatened to imprison to those who will participate in the protest.

Yunior García Aguilera, Cuban playwright and pro-democracy activist, speaks from Spain on November 17, 2021, in a screenshot Right to reply via EFE

However,

.

"I was locked in my house, there were about 200 people shouting insults at me. There were different levels, those that we saw in the video were the most decent, those that were at the door of my house, ring one," he told his interlocutor, journalist Ian Padrón, who reproduced a recording in which more than a dozen people are seen telling him that he could not leave his apartment "because your rights are violating ours."

"But below were the violent ones, who were the ones who were going to blow my teeth from breaking my ribs and further down, in the street were those who could reach ... anything," added García Aguilera, who ended up leaning out of the street. window with a white rose as a symbol of his movement in the face of the impossibility of going outside.

The playwright and opponent Yunior García Aguilera, looks outside from his home in Havana, on November 14, 2021.Ramon Espinosa / AP

The writer assured that the decision to leave for Spain was his alone and that it was motivated by the fear that his family could suffer reprisals.

He added that he had previously applied for a visa to travel to Spain after receiving threats of jail from the Cuban authorities.

He also clarified that he is not asylee and that his intention is to return to Cuba

after promoting the opposition cause abroad.

Given the questions he has received about leaving Cuba, in particular from members and followers of his own movement, the opposition leader assured that he would continue to fight for his ideal of freedom.

“If I stop being the marble leader on the white horse, that doesn't matter.

I am not doing things to be in the history books, I am doing things to achieve a change in Cuba, "he said. 

They report that about 100 Cuban activists are besieging their homes to prevent them from protesting

Nov. 15, 202104: 36

García Aguilera also recalled that members of the Archipelago, such as Daniela Rojo, are still imprisoned in Cuba and the repression of dissidents persists, as in the case of the art curator Carolina Barrero, who claims to have been under house arrest for 200 days.

"I don't think there is anyone in the world, after what has happened in recent weeks, who has any doubt that there is a tyrannical dictatorship in Cuba," said the pro-democracy activist, adding that tomorrow he will make "very important statements, in important places."

With information from