Posted on 06/11/2003 3:08:49 AM PDT by kattracks
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A popular Cuban musician has defected and was granted asylum in South Texas after taking a taxicab from Monterrey, Mexico, to the U.S. border.
Carlos Manuel Pruneda, of the Cuban band "Carlos Manuel and his Clan," flew from Mexico City to Monterrey, took a cab to Matamoros, then crossed the border and turned himself into Brownsville authorities Sunday evening, Harlingen television station KGBT reported.
He was granted asylum Tuesday.
The defection had been in the works for a while, said Joe Garcia, executive director of Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation.
"Someone close to him contacted us about this possibility and we told him that we would try to be helpful," Garcia said. "But apparently the situation got out of control in Mexico and he took off."
After Pruneda spoke privately to band members about defecting, some got nervous thinking about possible repercussions against family members in Cuba and informed Cuban officials of the plans, Garcia said.
"When he realized the Cuban authorities had word of it, they moved," Garcia said.
Pruneda was accompanied by six other people, including his mother, his cousin and some sound engineers. Pruneda was released Tuesday from Bayview Detention Center.
Although he had not spoken to Pruneda personally, Garcia said friends of Pruneda told him the performer yearned for personal and artistic freedom.
"This was a guy who has everything that one can have inside Cuba. But he is not a free man," Garcia said.
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