Cuba VP's Daughter Defects

Dad Marino Murillo is known as a reformer
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 28, 2012 9:13 AM CDT
Cuba VP's Daughter Defects
Cuba's President Raul Castro, right, speaks to Vice President of the Ministers Council Marino Murillo during a parliamentary meeting in Havana, Cuba, Friday Dec. 23, 2011.   (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)

Glenda Murillo Diaz, the 24-year-old daughter of Cuban Vice President Marino Murillo, has defected to the United States, and is currently living in Tampa, the AFP reports, based on a story in the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald. Murillo Diaz came to the US via Mexico, crossing the border in Texas.

Murillo is an economist who serves as Raul Castro's "reform czar," but the Herald says his daughter's defection represents "a vote of no confidence in the economic reforms Castro has ordered." Murillo Diaz will be allowed to remain in the US thanks to its "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which stipulates that Cuban defectors can stay if they reach dry land, but that if intercepted at sea they will be returned to Cuba. (More Cuba stories.)

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