- Title: Dissidents Garcia and Lopez ask 'tolerance' after students protest in Madrid
- Date: 13th December 2021
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (DECEMBER 13, 2021) (REUTERS) STUDENTS CHANTING (Spanish) "Get out fascists from University" STUDENT HOLDING BANNER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNNAMED STUDENT SAYING: "They come with the aim of provoking, only to provoke conflict because they know that in this faculty Leopoldo Lopez is not welcome. He is not welcome because he is not wanted, because the normal students don't want to come to see him either. Because not even God wants to see Leopoldo Lopez." STUDENTS TRYING TO ENTER EVENT OF DISSIDENTS LEOPOLDO LOPEZ AND YUNIOR GARCIA STUDENTS HOLDING BANNERS READING (Spanish) "Lopez murderer" AND "Get out Miami mafia. Coup plotters" STUDENTS HOLDING BANNER READING (Spanish) "Lopez murderer" VARIOUS OF ORGANISER TAKING OFF BANNER FROM EVENT AND CONFRONTING STUDENTS STUDENT PUTTING BANNER READING (Spanish) "Get out far-right from University" STUDENTS STUDENT CHANTING (Spanish) "Freedom, freedom" AND SOME STUDENTS LEAVING VARIOUS OF CUBAN DISSIDENT YUNIOR GARCIA AND VENEZUELAN DISSIDENT LEOPOLDO LOPEZ ARRIVING AT EVENT UPSOUND FROM LEOPOLDO SAYING (Spanish) "In Venezuela it started like this and ended with shots" (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CUBAN DISSIDENT YUNIOR GARCIA SAYING WHILE ATTENDEES CHANT (Spanish) "Freedom, freedom": "It is as elementary (the tolerance) as understanding that in the face there is a mouth and ears. However, it is much more difficult for us to listen to each other than to shout things at each other. I hope that we will shout less and less things at each other and be willing to listen to what the other thinks." GARCIA DURING EVENT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CUBAN DISSIDENT, YUNIOR GARCIA SAYING: "This platform would like to build a country as Marti, Cuba's national hero, dreamt of, and which unfortunately we have never been able to realise. A country with all and for the good of all. That is the objective we were looking for in Archipielago and that is what I, despite the attacks, in spite of the acts of repudiation, in spite of the hatred, of the shouting, I will never get tired of looking for." GARCIA AND LOPEZ DURING EVENT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN DISSIDENT, LEOPOLDO LOPEZ, SAYING: "Of course there is no democracy in our countries and our dream, Cuba's, Nicaragua's, Venezuela's, is the same: freedom and free elections. And whoever has intolerance against freedom and free elections cannot call himself a democrat or a lover of freedom, he must assume his responsibility as an autocrat of thought, as an intolerant person, as part of movements that seek to repress rights, to asphyxiate societies, to prevent the individuals from generating prosperity or well-being through their creativity, their contribution, their work, their talent." PEOPLE ATTENDING EVENT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN DISSIDENT, LEOPOLDO LOPEZ, SAYING: "Today more than ever we say long live the University, laboratory of freedom. Long live the University, laboratory of freedom. And we say it today with strength, with courage, with faith, and always with our heads held high so that we can debate with ideas wherever we have to debate." LOPEZ DURING EVENT LOPEZ AND GARCIA POSING WITH STUDENTS
- Embargoed: 27th December 2021 20:06
- Keywords: Cuba Leopoldo Lopez Spain Venezuela Yunior Garcia dissidents
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001F7VD4QV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Cuban dissident Yunior Garcia and Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo Lopez held on Monday (December 13) a joint meeting at a Madrid University with students protesting their presence.
Some students from Complutense University tried to sabotage the event chanting "get out from the University fascists" and placing banners at the event's room.
"I hope that we will shout less and less things at each other and be willing to listen to what the other thinks," said Garcia during the event "Freedom without anger".
Cuban protest leader Yunior Garcia and his wife arrived in Madrid in mid-November.
The young playwright took a commercial flight to Spain after the communist-run Cuban government blocked a major protest he helped plan.
Garcia became a central figure in Cuba's dissident movement following protests in July that drew thousands onto the streets to demonstrate against shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
"There is no democracy in our countries and our dream, Cuba's, Nicaragua's, Venezuela's, is the same: freedom and free elections," said Leopoldo Lopez.
Venezuelan opposition politician arrived in Madrid in 2020 after spending a year at the Spanish ambassador's residence in Venezuela to escape house arrest.
Lopez was jailed in 2014 for leading violent protests against Maduro, and was released to house arrest in 2017.
From his Caracas home, he was a mentor to opposition leader Juan Guaido, who in 2019 invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency and began a campaign to unseat Maduro.
(Production: Guillermo Martinez, Elena Rodriguez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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