By Carmen Sesin
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A former Miami teacher who was jailed in Cuba on espionage charges for five years has not been allowed to return to the United States even though she was released in July.
Cuba’s government gave her conditional freedom, meaning Alina López Miyares, who is Cuban American, cannot leave the island for now, according to her U.S. attorney, Jason Poblete.
Her mother, also named Alina Miyares, who turns 95 in November, is receiving hospice care at her Miami Beach apartment after spending years advocating for her daughter’s release.
Until the pandemic began, she would make monthly trips to Cuba to visit her daughter in prison, carrying food and medicine. She was at the helm of her daughter’s case, speaking often with her attorney, as well as with the media.
Now, in a hospital bed at her apartment, López Miyares’ mother is frail but said a few words about her daughter to NBC News.
“Help my daughter. She has been in Cuba for a long time,” she said, adding “God is great," as she spoke haltingly.
During an interview in 2021, she told NBC News, “the pain that a mother feels does not compare with anything.”
López Miyares’ brother, Gene López, 60, moved in with his mother to care for her while her son, Michael Peralta, 34, moved from Los Angeles to Miami to be closer to his grandmother.
Peralta is in touch with his mother in Cuba and says she has not expressed happiness over her conditional release because “she is dying to be reunited with her mother.”
“All she has expressed to me is, ‘I want to be with my mom, I want to take care of my mom,’” he said.
“Hopefully there is some compassion from the Cuban government because of my grandmother’s situation,” Peralta said.
He said his mother spends her days at church and with family. He regularly sends her money to pay for rent and food.
In 2017, López Miyares was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a military court. Her family has always maintained she is innocent.