Havana/Cuban opposition figure Roberto Veiga González reported this Saturday that he had been pressured by immigration officials to leave the island, after being taken to an “interview” in which, according to his story, they insisted that he buy a return ticket to Europe and leave the country “quickly.”
The political analyst, who returned last june to Cuba after years of exile, he affirmed that he rejected those pressures and ratified his intention to remain permanently in the country.
In a post on his Facebook profile, Veiga stated that on the afternoon of July 3, after returning to his home after participating by videoconference in an event organized in Paris by the Casa de América and the French Association for Democracy in Cuba, he was intercepted by two “emigration officers” and taken to an “interview.”
According to his story, during the interrogation the officials repeatedly insisted on when he would buy his return ticket to Europe and “imperatively advised him to quickly leave the Island.” Veiga rejected these pressures and reaffirmed that his intention is to remain in Cuba stably: “There will be no return ticket to Europe. I confirm that I have returned to Cuba to establish myself permanently in my country,” he wrote.
“There will be no return ticket to Europe. I ratify that I have returned to Cuba to establish myself permanently in my country”
Roberto Veiga returned to the Island after almost seven years in exile. Its organization, the Cuba Próxima study center, then reported that Veiga had been detained upon arrival at the José Martí international airport and subjected to interrogations by State Security, surveillance that, according to the team itself, has not ceased since then.
Veiga, who was one of the central figures of the magazine Lay Space and after the Cuba Posible project, he returned to Cuba with the intention of promoting from within a political transition proposal titled The agreed opening: a roadmap for national reconstruction.
The plan, presented in April by Cuba Próxima, proposes a negotiated transition based on a “sovereign multi-actor dialogue”, with profound institutional reforms, the release of political prisoners, changes in the electoral system and the restructuring of the Gaesa military conglomerate. It also includes proposals directed at the United States, such as the lifting of economic restrictions and the withdrawal of Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The organization maintains that Veiga’s return is part of a commitment to “political action from within” at a time of national crisis. In recent statements to 14ymedioVeiga himself defended his decision to return despite the risks: “No matter how much you work from the outside, you are still a spectator. You have to work here, which is where things are going to happen.”
