USCA11 Case: 19-14110 Date Filed: 04/07/2021 Page: 1 of 29 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-14110 ________________________ Agency No. A215-660-467 LUIS MIGUEL CABRERA MARTINEZ, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (April 7, 2021) Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. BRANCH, Circuit Judge: Cuban citizen Luis Miguel Cabrera Martinez petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) order affirming the denial of his USCA11 Case: 19-14110 Date Filed: 04/07/2021 Page: 2 of 29 applications for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), and relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“CAT”). The BIA affirmed the immigration judge’s (“IJ”) findings that: (1) Martinez failed to establish that he suffered past persecution; (2) Martinez failed to establish that he had a well-founded fear of future persecution in Cuba as a dissident journalist; and (3) Martinez failed to establish that he was likely to be tortured if he returned to Cuba. Because the IJ and the BIA failed to provide reasoned consideration of Martinez’s evidence of his well-founded fear of future persecution based on a pattern or practice of persecution toward dissident journalists in Cuba, we grant in part his petition, vacate the BIA’s decision in part, and remand this case for further proceedings. We deny, however, Martinez’s petition for review of his asylum claim based on past persecution because substantial evidence supports the BIA’s conclusion that Martinez did not demonstrate that he suffered past persecution. I. Background A. Martinez’s Application & Hearing In his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief, Martinez alleged that Cuban officials targeted him for mistreatment after they learned of his writing for Convivencia, a magazine critical of Cuban tax policies. 2 USCA11 Case: 19-14110 Date Filed: 04/07/2021 Page: 3 of 29 Although Martinez used a pseudonym for his writings, he asserted that Cuban officials became aware of his affiliation with the magazine because he attended weekly meetings at the home of the magazine director. During his hearing on his application, Martinez testified that he was harmed or threatened “on multiple occasions” by Cuban officials, and he described a series of incidents that occurred over a two-year period that he attributed to writing for Convivencia. Specifically, in July 2015, his mother’s coworkers warned her about Martinez’s collaboration with the magazine. Then, in November 2015, the president of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (“CDR”), a neighborhood group of Cuban government informants, warned Martinez that if he continued “writing for the magazine” or “helping in these manifestations” that he could “spend a lot of time in prison,” “be tortured,” and that the CDR could “do unimaginable things to [him].” Martinez later received notes from a different CDR member warning that he should not participate in further activities supporting Convivencia. On February 13, 2016, two men …
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