Two Cuban cast members of an award-winning film who disappeared en route to New York for a film festival have emerged from hiding and said they will apply for asylum in the US.
“In Cuba, we were talking about it, to stay,” actor Javier Nunez Florian told the Miami-based, Spanish-language channel America TeVe in an interview that aired late on Friday, appearing alongside actress Anailin de la Rua.
On a stopover in Miami on their flight on Wednesday from Havana to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival, the pair, both aged 20, slipped away from their traveling companions and fled to the home of De la Rua’s uncle in Miami.
Photo: Reuters
Staying in the US had been a “dream” of theirs, Nunez added.
Immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen said the pair would apply for asylum in the US.
“To seek political asylum does not mean they have been victims of political persecution in Cuba,” Allen said, “but they deserted.”
According to the lawyer, if they returned to Cuba they could be considered “traitors” and could possibly suffer repression by the communist regime.
The film Una Noche (One Night) tells the story of three teenagers trying to make the dangerous ocean passage from Cuba to Florida on a homemade raft, a plot that drew comparisons with the decision they later made.
The film’s third main actor traveled on to the renowned festival to receive an award for his role, which he had been set share with Nunez.
“I’m happy for me, I’m happy for them,” Dariel Arrechada said after getting the Best Actor award on Thursday.
The short film also scooped the Best New Director and Best Cinematography gongs from among six awards given out during the competition.
Since 1966, Cubans have been granted automatic residence if they make it to the US from Cuba.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of