SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The independent journalist and Cuban political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was exiled by the island’s regime after having been unjustly imprisoned for almost three years.
Valle Roca arrived in Miami this Wednesday, June 5, which marks the end of a period of imprisonment that has sparked condemnation and concern at an international level after the constant abuse to which he was subjected and the deterioration of his state of health, which put at risk his life.
In statements to CubaNetFrom the airport, the journalist referred to his worrying health situation and the conditions of his exile.
—I’m going to apologize because I’m in a situation where what I’ve been through has been a lot of torture. (The agents of the regime) have a lot of hatred against me, for what I represent, for everything they did to my grandfather, to my family, and not to my family but to all the people of Cuba. There have been many things that I have had to face. I forget things. That’s a rough memory, honestly.
I have to take at least two, three days to see the doctor and do things right to give each of you an exclusive.
—How was the exit process? Did the authorities come to visit you? Did this news surprise you?
-No. They went to look for me the morning before and took me to the punishment room of the National Hospital, that is, locked up, with maximum security, maximum security level. Apparently, I am the worst thing in life. I was treated like a terrorist, the worst thing in the world.
They took me there, for the national and at four in the morning they took me out and took me to the airport. My wife, Eralidis Frómeta, brought me some clothes and these are the clothes I came here with.
—They told us that even the airport was under siege
-Completely. Notice that, if people called me, the State Security agents would park next to me.
—What was the last message for you from State Security?
—The way State Security works is through propaganda, they indoctrinate the people, they dogmatize them, they deceive them and they do it that way with everyone.
—Is it an exile?
—Did they give you any option? Did they tell you that you couldn’t return, that you had to leave or go back to prison?
-Yes of course. If I return to Cuba, not to prison, I will already be dead, because they made it very clear to me.
—Lázaro, you have always said that you are a prisoner of Raúl Castro.
—I am the grandson of Blas Roca Calderío, who was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and so my grandfather, in everything, tried to do the best, because the constitution of ’76 was very similar to that of ’40. And I remember that I was a child and I brought coffee to them, to Fidel. Fidel Castro’s arrogance was the greatest thing in the world, in order to gain and maintain absolute, completely totalitarian power.
After my grandfather got sick, our entire family was treated like we were… wow, I don’t know.
—Do you think that the fact that you are the grandson of who you are influenced them to let you leave?
—I don’t know, because honestly, since I was arrested, when they took me to Villa Marista, I immediately gave up and didn’t want to, I went five days without drinking water.
There my kidneys exploded, my pressure went to a million, and thanks to the fact that people went out on July 11 and on the 12th to the streets, that was what kept me alive, it was what made me take it off again. of the state of starvation.
Things were not in my destiny for me to die, things have been difficult for them, but they have done it and they have tried to do it in such a way that they tried to wear me down until the time comes for me to die.
—Did you live with prisoners from July 11?
—Yes, I lived with many of them. There are boys who are very good, others who, imagine, since they do not have a conscience and do not have a strong conviction, they start making slogans and making little songs and what do I know…
Our henchmen and executioners are the ones who do this and begin to make fun of it. Notice that among the guards themselves there are contradictions, because I remember that I didn’t stand up or say a slogan or anything like that. There was a guard who told me “Don’t you say motto?”, and I responded: “Me? No”. He told me: “No, it’s okay, don’t get upset with me.” And he replied: “Look, you see, that is a man, that is not shameless, nor a hypocrite, nor a…” and then those things existed too.
—How did this exile option that State Security gave you begin?
—All this comes from an effort made by my brother-in-law, Eralidis’s brother, because she was worried about me and told me: “We need a solution because I see you in a very bad way.”
I was 70 something, 80 kg and I dropped to 53, but I got even worse because I was dry. I didn’t have that. I am a “ball of skin”.
They took advantage of my health situation and then my wife was very deteriorated. Things were getting more difficult every day, we had no choice.
Many brothers who lived with me there, like Ernesto Borges, who I had the opportunity and honor to share with him on the third south floor of building two, gave me strength. They told me: “Yuri, do some exercises, keep going.” That’s how things were.
—Did they then propose to you to find a way out?
-Yeah. Even later they tried to blackmail me, telling me: “Either you were going to leave or you were going to stay and die in prison.” I know I was going to die, you know I was going to die.
For her part, Yuri’s wife, Eralidis Frómeta, activist and independent journalist, expressed:
—I want to thank all of you, all the NGO organizations, the lawyer Teresa Ortiz, the Cuba lawsuit, all the activists, human rights defenders who made it possible for us not to give up in Cuba. They were by our side the entire time, supporting us in everything.
Regarding the question they initially asked Lázaro, since they took him to prison, they always tried to force a forced exile, that is, they told it to me so that I could transmit it to them. An offer that, if he accepted, he would not go to prison.
He refused and spent these three hard years in prison, until he reached the conditions that the dictatorship has created for him, without knowing how many viruses they have inoculated him with or how many things. At this moment, if we had not agreed to come with this humanitarian parole, he would not have been released from prison. They would have let him die, because that was the last message that was transmitted to me, that if I did not agree to leave, I would have to spend five more years carrying him.
—Have you had any medical treatment in Cuba or in prison for the eye tumor?
—In Cuba, despite all the diseases – the last ones were diagnosed on April 30 –, he has not had treatment, he has a visual tumor, he has a 26 millimeter gallstone, he has sclerosis in the aorta vein. He has an allergy, he has a deviation in the septum of his nose, a product of all the beatings that Castro’s criminals have given him.
He has sacrolumbagia, he has a kidney problem that I am still not satisfied with because it was the first illness that he was diagnosed with, kidney failure, which I do not believe would have been cured without treatment and without medical assistance. He has lung strengthening that turned into chronic bronchopneumonia.
And all this is thanks to the fact that the dictatorship was killing him. As I have always said in my complaints, they were murdering Lázaro Yuri.
—What is going to happen to you now? To where they go? How are they going to react?
—We are thinking of going to Philadelphia. There we are going to see what the organization is like.
In any case, we will see if we encounter any problems, because right now the most important thing is health, being able to discard everything that he brings in this body. That was not his weight, that was not his height when he was taken to prison. He used to wear a size 34 and now less than a 32. We want to firmly determine his health status, which is critical.
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2024-06-07 08:09:16
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