Journalist Alondra Santiago Leaves Ecuador Before Being Deported
Journalist Alondra Santiago, 2024. Photo: X/ @cubalondra
June 28, 2024 Hour: 11:35 am
She had maintained a critical stance against the right-wing administrations that have controlled Ecuador since 2017.
On Friday, the Cuban journalist and actress Alondra Santiago left Ecuador legally and voluntarily before being deported by the authorities of this Andean country.
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Ecuador Revokes Visa of Cuban Journalist Alleging Acts Against State Security
Three days ago, the government of President Daniel Noboa revoked her permanent residency visa, arguing that Santiago had committed acts against national security. This was supposedly determined by a “secret report” prepared by Ecuadorian intelligence.
However, to the public public, the facts are different. For years, through her interview program ‘The Ungovernables,’ Santiago had maintained a critical stance against the right-wing administrations that have controlled Ecuador since 2017.
A few weeks ago, she sang a fragment of the national anthem at the beginning of a parody in which she questioned the supposed achievements of the Noboa administration. This constituted the immediate antecedent for the actions taken by the authorities.
Her lawyer, Carlos Soria, explained that Santiago left the country before being deported. She hopes to return to Ecuador once the legal actions in her defense take effect.
“In the last few hours, I have made the difficult decision to leave my country: Ecuador. And I am not leaving deported, I am leaving legally beforehand because I will not be part of the show that the Government is putting on. I will not be part of the smokescreen they are creating to cover up their incompetence and violence against the people,” Santiago said.
“In the last week, I have seen the face of authoritarianism and violence firsthand. They want to silence me. Today my physical, emotional, and mental integrity are compromised. Today my life is in danger because of an abusive person in power,” she added, implicitly referring to Noboa.
“He will not stop until he silences my voice. Today it is a deportation because I spoke out, because a woman journalist told the truth, because a song bothered him, because I exposed his incompetence, violence, and arbitrariness,” Santiago said.
“What will it be tomorrow? What else will they invent? What media and people will they use for achieving their goals? Although I fully trust that Justice will rule in favor of truth, rights, and freedom, I do not trust a government that is capable of manipulating and inventing information to remove me from the life I have built in Ecuador over the past 19 years,” she added.
“Nothing and no one will stop my voice or my journalistic work,” stressed Santiago, who described Noboa as an “accident of democracy” and a “cardboard president.”
On Wednesday, Roberto Rock, the president of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), expressed his concern about what had happened. Given the lack of precision about the reasons for her deportation, he said that it is necessary for the government to explain clearly whether the visa revocation is related to the journalist’s criticisms.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: EFE
