Marisela Alfonso Reveals She Left Cuba to Avoid Imprisonment

Marisela Alfonso Madrigal, a Cuban broadcaster now residing in Spain, revealed that she left Cuba to avoid imprisonment. In an interview with host Abel Álvarez for his YouTube show "Abel en cualquier parte," this was one of the topics they discussed.

"How was the separation, telling your parents, who are over 80 years old, that you were leaving?" was the question that triggered part of Marisela's response about her motivations for leaving the island. "Look, I’ll tell you something, it’s a very painful, very hard situation. I think about it, and I get a lump in my throat," Marisela said as she attempted to answer the question.

Marisela explained that she sat down with her parents and told them, "due to all the denouncements I am making against the regime and the dictatorship of Cuba," she had to leave. Her mother is 80 years old, and her father 81, and at that age, she made them choose. "You have to decide, either you go with my brother (who lives in the United States) or your daughter goes to jail," she recounted.

"If I stay here, I will go to jail, and you will bring me little bags, and you won't see me. Otherwise, if I leave Cuba, at least you will see me on WhatsApp. It's hard, it's painful," she asserted.

Forced Exile

In another part of the conversation, the former host of the program Frecuencia Total on the official Radio Rebelde station said she underwent "a forced exile. I left Cuba to avoid imprisonment, not to sacrifice myself for a people, a people who are not capable of uniting, and I include myself in that."

For several years, Marisela had not practiced her profession and had dedicated herself to denouncing the Cuban regime on social media and her YouTube channel, La Madrigal. "I say I am a spectator in a dark cinema, sitting in a seat, watching a horror movie, and I was narrating that horror movie which I did not create, I am not the screenwriter, I am not the director, and I am a victim of that dictatorship like all Cubans," she explained during her conversation with Álvarez.

In the interview, she acknowledged that "she would never call on the people to do what she did not do because she did not go out on the street with a banner. And besides, we have a repression, a dictatorship, they know people cannot go out like on July 11. Where are they all? Where are all those children, all those young people who also peacefully protested against that dictatorship, crying out for change?" she questioned.

"I cry for Cuba, I cry for the Cubans because when I arrived here last year (in Spain) and I saw all this, I said, ‘but what have they done to us?’ They have stolen our lives, they have stolen our dreams, they have stolen our freedom, and it hurts," she said about her arrival in Spain, where her only son resides.

Current State of Freedom in Cuba

Cuba has been internationally criticized for its restrictive policies on freedom of expression. Activists, journalists, and dissidents often face harassment, arbitrary arrests, and detentions for expressing opinions contrary to the government. Cuban laws severely limit press and speech freedoms, leading many to seek refuge in other countries where they can express their opinions without fear of reprisal.

When Marisela left Cuba last year, she left behind her parents, who are waiting for their parole, her mother-in-law living in Bolondrón (a locality in Matanzas), and her two cats, "well cared for" until she can bring them with her. "I leave Cuba and fly to my other homeland, my mother by genealogical right (...) after deregistering from the MLA (my supply booklet) or rationing, and I laugh when I read on the OFICODA another one of their slogans: 'Our mission is to guarantee the family basket of our people, contributing to their protection,'" she wrote on her Facebook profile to announce her departure from the island.

In January of this year, she married Adriana Moenck in Havana after more than a decade together. Adriana accompanied her on the trip.