On Wednesday, August 26, after a meeting with GLA-allied lawyers for 100 Cuban medical workers, the Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Safety agreed to investigate the workers' allegations of forced labor in the Cuban medical mission.

The situation of Cuban medical professionals in Brazil has been well documented, especially since PAHO's role in the Cuba-Brazil contracts was identified. See the New York Times article "Cuban Doctors Accused International Agency of Profiting from Their Work" (11/29/18).

 Below, read GLA's press release on the matter. 

On Wednesday, September 2, the Global Liberty Alliance (GLA) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the U.S. Government to issue sanctions for the Cuban Communist Party officials and others who are complicit in blocking humanitarian aid from U.S.-based charitable and civil society organizations.

The aid continues to be withheld from Cuban citizens, after almost one month. GLA's letter puts forth names of Cuban Party officials, Customs officials, and officials from the Council of Churches that GLA has obtained from Cuban citizens on the island who feel cheated by their government.

See the letter below. 

For more information about GLA's letter on this "blockade" of humanitarian aid, you can explore the following media coverage:

• Jason Poblete on Tomás Cardoso, Radio TV Martí's "Cuba al Día" 
• Jason Poblete on Radio TV Martí's "Noticiero de Radio Martí 12:00 PM"
• Martí Noticias, "Piden a Pompeo responder con sanciones a retención de ayuda humanitaria en Cuba"
• Diario de Cuba, "Una organización pide a EEUU sanciones para implicados en la retención de ayuda humanitaria en Cuba"
• ADN Cuba, "Fuertes sanciones para cómplices del régimen cubano tras retener ayuda humanitaria"

On July 30, the Global Liberty Alliance joined a coalition of friends and advocates of fundamental rights committed to upholding human rights and human dignity in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of State’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, which recently released a Draft Report. 

​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.