(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 1 July 2004 IAPA press release: Bernardo Arévalo Padrón tells IAPA US has granted him political asylum MIAMI, Florida (July 1, 2004) – In a telephone call today from Havana, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, one of the most prominent members of Cuba’s independent press who spent six years in prison […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 1 July 2004 IAPA press release:
Bernardo Arévalo Padrón tells IAPA US has granted him political asylum
MIAMI, Florida (July 1, 2004) – In a telephone call today from Havana, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, one of the most prominent members of Cuba’s independent press who spent six years in prison for reporting in defiance of government controls, told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) that he is due to travel to the United States shortly as a political refugee. 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 after Arévalo Padrón spent six years suffering in prison. Molina, of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, newspaper El Nacional, said, “with Arévalo Padrón going into exile a very valuable and necessary person for the struggle for liberty in Cuba is lost.”
Arévalo Padrón told the IAPA that on June 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, has planned a three-day stopover in Miami en route to Texas. He has scheduled a press conference at the airport on his arrival in Miami.
Arévalo Padrón is the independent journalist who has thus far spent the most time in prison in Cuba. He was released on November 13, 2003 and immediately resumed his reporting activities. In his call to IAPA, he thanked the organization and others who defend press freedom and human rights for their constant support.
