​Alexandria, VA - The Global Liberty Alliance (GLA) has received word that several members of the Association of Free Yorubas of Cuba (Asociación de Yorubas Libres de Cuba), including an underage boy, were just released from police custody after being separately summoned to the police station in Placetas, Villa Clara this afternoon. They were in police custody for 3 hours.
 

As ADN Cuba reported today, Timothy Zuniga Brown will replace Mara Tekach as Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba. For her part, Ms. Tekach will take up Mr. Zuniga Brown's current position as coordinator of the State Department’s Office of Cuban Affairs.

When asked by ADN Cuba about the appointment, GLA' s Chief Counsel and Policy Advisor Jason I. Poblete stated: "The United States will be well represented in Havana by Tim. He's very familiar not only with the politics involving the United States and Cuba and interested parties, but also with the Western Hemisphere, as well as the importance of Cuban politics in related affairs."

As América Tevé reported tonight, Colombia is pulling Cuban healthcare workers from its country, just days after Cuba's medical mission in Mexico was also reported to have returned to Cuba. See around 1:45 to hear GLA's efforts mentioned, and see GLA founding attorney Jason I. Poblete's comments: 

Yesterday, on June 25, 2020, evangelical Pastor Ramón Rigal Rodríguez, of Guantánamo, Cuba, was released after over a year of unlawful imprisonment. Pastor Rigal and his wife, Adya Expósito, were sentenced in May 2019 to two and one-and-a-half years of prison for homeschooling their children.

In close collaboration with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in Purcellville, Virginia, and with Cuban religious leaders, the Global Liberty Alliance (GLA) has been advocating for the release of the Rigal parents since their trial. In late April 2019, the GLA and the HSLDA petitioned the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for precautionary measures to protect the Rigal family and press Cuba to release them.

While the Rigal family is finally reunited, as Radio Televisión Martí has said, the reporter who covered their trial, GLA client Roberto Quiñones, is still unjustly imprisoned. You can find more information about GLA’s advocacy for the Rigal-Expósito family here. GLA is committed to defending fundamental rights, such as freedom of religion and of belief.

​You can learn more about GLA’s work on our Facebook page or our Twitter account.

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​On June 17, GLA addressed Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena Coqui in a letter, requesting that Mexico answer Mexican Senator Alejandra Noemi Reynoso Sánchez’s request for more details about the role of Cuban medical professionals in Mexico. While the Mexican government repeatedly denied having contracted Cuba’s “medical missions” in 2019 and 2020, GLA and Sen. Reynoso received credible information about the presence of Cuban health workers.

On April 29, 2020, the GLA urged the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to grant Precautionary Measures on behalf of Dr. Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces (see cover letter below). An independent journalist and former practicing attorney, Dr. Quiñones has been unlawfully imprisoned in Cuba since September 11, 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded Dr. Quiñones’s health status.

Dr. Quiñones is serving a year’s prison sentence for covering the show trial of homeschooler parents Pastors Ramón Rigal and Adya Expósito. On April 26, his son, who resides in Virginia, U.S.A., expressed concern for his father in a statement: “My father’s health condition is rapidly deteriorating under the terrible conditions to which he is subject in the Cuban jail. I want to ask the Cuban government to release my father again, especially now with this terrible situation with the virus, on the island and around the world.”

A “precautionary measure” is ruling by an international tribunal such as the IACHR directing a state, in this case Cuba, to take (or refrain from taking) certain measures in order to prevent or stop human rights violations in serious and urgent situations where the life and safety of the person are at stake. 

​Trump administration officials have repeatedly advocated for Dr. Quiñones. You can learn more about Dr. Quiñones’s case, including the U.S. government response, on the GLA Case Work page.

América TV featured GLA's action; you can see the video here. ADNCuba covered the story, as well, here.

The Global Liberty Alliance (GLA) announces collaboration with noted Uruguayan jurist Dr. Sabrina Verónica Peláez Iglesias on rule of law and anti-corruption matters in South America.

Defense of private property rights and the rule of law is helping fuel economic prosperity in South America. Yet over many decades, bad actors from other regions continue to hide out, seeking safe havens in the Americas. For example, Hezbollah exploits the banking sector, particularly in the Tri-Border Area of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Cuba and Venezuela - client states of Russia and China - engage in activities that undermine the inter-American system and U.S. national and security interests; they invite other bad actors, such as Iran, to do the same.

You can read the full press release below: