Cuban dissident says government cut off his communications to silence him

MADRID - Cuban dissident Yunior Garcia said on Thursday in Madrid the government on the Caribbean island had allowed him to leave for him not to become a symbol of protests and that authorities had cut off all his communications before his departure.

"The regime needed to silence me, convert me into a non-person," he told a news conference. "All I have is my voice, I couldn't stay silent. That's why I came to Spain," he said, adding that he wished to return to Cuba at some point.

Garcia said the Cuban government was acting like "an abusive husband" to its people, calling it "a dictatorship and brutal tyranny."