Chrisitan Solidarity Worldwide has an update on former Cuban political prisoner Omar Gude Perez has finally been allowed to leave Cuba for exile in the United States:
Pastor Omar Gude Perez, his wife Kenia Denis and their two children arrived in the United States as refugees yesterday. They were finally granted permission by Cuban emigration authorities to leave the island following an 18-month wait for the appropriate paperwork.
Former prisoner of conscience Pastor Gude Perez and his family were granted asylum by the United States in July 2011 after he was barred from working as a pastor and following a campaign of official harassment lasting a number of years. Despite multiple verbal promises on the part of government officials, the family was blocked from leaving the country for 18 months.
State security officials contacted Pastor Gude Perez on 14 November following his wife’s high profile visit to Washington DC, facilitated by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), during which she highlighted their case. He received a citation to present himself a police station the following day in Havana in order to sign a series of documents that they assured him would allow him to leave the country. There were no further developments until mid-January when state security officials contacted the family to inform them that an exit permit had been issued.
The couple expressed relief that they have finally been able to leave the country, expressing particular concern for their teenage children, who were barred from attending school after the offer of asylum was extended. In a statement to CSW, Pastor Gude Perez said, “My son, Omar Daniel, who is seventeen years old, has in just six months, lost fifty pounds of his bodily weight. My daughter Keila Rosa, who will soon celebrate her fifteenth birthday – the dream of every little girl – has lost three-quarters of her hair since the Americans first told us we would be able to travel.”
CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “CSW has made this case a priority since we first learned of Pastor Gude’s arrest in 2008. We are overjoyed that the Gude Perez family has finally been allowed to take up the offer of asylum in the United States where they will be able to practice their faith in freedom. The decision to leave Cuba has been a difficult and painful one for the family but the constant harassment on the part of the government and the official prohibition on their participation in religious ministry gave them no other option. We know they will continue to fight for religious freedom in Cuba from their new home in the United States and will be an effective voice for their network of churches, which continues to suffer targeted persecution. CSW will support them in this important work, drawing attention to the Cuban government’s ongoing violations of religious liberty.”
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