Amauris Samartino Flores

Who is Amauris Samartino Flores?

Amauris Samartino Flores is a Cuban physician who escaped from his native country in 1999 in a makeshift raft. He was given asylum in Bolivia, but after becoming politically active in that country, protesting the governments of both Fidel Castro and Evo Morales, was deported. He now lives in Norway.

On January 9, 2007, Samartino, a Cuban refugee who had been a resident of Bolivia since 2000, was expelled from that country after having been held for seventeen days for criticizing the Bolivian and Cuban governments. According to a report by the Human Rights Foundation, "Samartino was subjected to numerous human rights violations, including wrongful imprisonment, arbitrary detainment, forced exile, due process abuse, and undue restriction of free speech." He arrived in Colombia on the night of January 8. Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF, said: "Amauris Samartino’s case is a scandal and it reveals that the government of Bolivia will stop at nothing to silence dissent."