PRESS RELEASE
Yunior García Aguilera denounces the repressive situation in Cuba at the Geneva Summit and calls for the release of the young people of El 4tico during his speech
Link to the testimony: https://youtu.be/Ji03nvNHIn4?si=pXMYyPbNNZjQqTf8
Contacts: John Suárez (612) 367-6845/ Janisset Rivero (786) 208-6056
Center for a Free Cuba, February 18, 2026, Geneva, Switzerland. This morning, exiled Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera shared his testimony with attendees at the Geneva Summit, an event organized by UNWatch, which the Center for a Free Cuba is a partner organization. He shared his personal story and concluded by denouncing the repressive situation in Cuba, especially against the young YouTubers of “El 4tico.”
“I’ve been lucky, very lucky. I’m alive and free, which is why I prefer to talk about those who remain inside Cuba, trapped in the belly of a much darker and much more bitter fish. Just a few days ago, two young men in Holguín, the city where I was born, were arrested. […] These young men who are imprisoned in Cuba are named Ernesto and Kamil. Their crime, their terrible crime, was having a YouTube channel called ‘El 4tico.’ They spoke of freedom and democracy, two words considered subversive in Cuba. They also had more followers than the country’s ‘president,’ although that’s no merit; anyone in Cuba has more followers than Miguel Díaz-Canel, who came to the presidency with a single vote, the only vote that matters in Cuba: Raúl Castro’s vote,” García Aguilera stated in his presentation.
In November 2021, Yunior García Aguilera called for a massive public protest following the mass protests and arrests of July 11 and 12 of that year. The call to action resulted in nothing but repression and García Aguilera’s exile in Spain. During his testimony, he shared the repressive measures he and his family endured, stating, “I wasn’t the Messiah many expected; I was more like Jonah, swallowed by a great fish called exile.”
He concluded with a warning to the international community:
“The international community must understand that inaction also kills, that looking the other way is taking sides, that it’s time to support the people in Cuba, not the regime, not the government, not the dictatorship. And the people are crying out for change. When I talk to my friends inside Cuba, they tell me, ‘We’re afraid, yes, afraid that everything will stay the same,’ because we believe the worst thing that could happen is that nothing changes, because if that dictatorship remains in power for another three, four, five years, perhaps there will be nothing left to save.”
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