Press Advisory
Center for a Free Cuba denounces the Cuban government's denial of the right to return to Cuban dissident and artist Anamely Ramos González. Asks why Cuba is on the UN Human Rights Council.
Washington, DC, February 16, 2022
Contact: John Suarez (612)-367-6845
Anamely Ramos en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami. Yenier Martínez CUBANET
Washington DC. February 16, 2022. The Center for a Free Cuba denounces Havana's denial of the right to return of Cuban national Anamely Ramos González, and calls for international solidarity on her behalf.
On February 16, 2022 with her documents in order, and plane ticket in hand, a representative of American Airlines told Anamely Ramos González that she could not board the flight home on instructions of the Cuban government. Anamely Ramos González is an artist and nonviolent Cuban dissident who resides in Cuba.
She traveled abroad in January 2021 to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the Universidad Iberoamericana de México. Today, 13 months later, she was denied entry into Cuba by American Airlines personnel on the instructions of Cuban government officials.
"Denying Anamely Ramos her right to return to her homeland is not only a violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but violates existing Cuban law, demonstrating the tyrannical nature of the Cuban government, and the decades long internal blockade erected against the Cuban people by the Castro regime. The Center for a Free Cuba condemns this arbitrary denial of a fundamental human right and calls on the international community to hold Havana responsible," stated John Suarez, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba who then asked, "Why is Cuba currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council?"
Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."
The Cuban government systematically violates this universal human right. Until 2013, Cubans who stayed abroad over 11 months lost their right to return. In 2013 Cuban law increased the amount of time Cubans could spend overseas without losing their residency rights from 11 months to two years, but in the case of Anamely Ramos she is being denied her right to return.
The Center supports her decision to protest this unjust action by regime officials, and condemns another manifestation of the internal blockade constructed by the Cuban government that systematically oppresses the Cuban people.
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