On July 31st, Human Rights First, confirmed its legal support for Cuban journalist, Jose Ramirez Pantoja, who requested political asylum in the United States, the first days of June, after having been subject to official censorship. Rodriguez had made reports about comments made by Karina Marron, deputy director of the official newspaper Granma. who in a guild meeting raised concern about a possible social outbreak similar to that of the Maleconazo in 1994.
Reporters Without Borders also joined the cause, as well as Carlos Alberto Montaner, who assumed the translation of the journalist’s documents and Eduardo Beckett, a migration issues attorney in El Paso, who closely followed the case since its inception.
In a dialogue with FUNDAMEDIOS, Pantoja said he cannot return to Cuba because he fears for his physical safety. «If I’m not granted political asylum in the United States, may God never allow it, I would be a death target in my country … A state security officer told me that I would be going to a subterranean prison and that in there I wouldn’t last three days. If the United States does not give me the asylum I am asking for, it would expose me to death”, he said.
The journalist, who was fired from Holguin radio, told FUNDAMEDIOS that the threats began when he exposed content that made the displeased government. He suffered censorship in all official and independent Cuban, he was also denied all job opportunities.
Listen to the full interview with Jose Ramirez Pantoja, conducted by Dagmar Thiel, director of FUNDAMEDIOS in Washington.