LENOX — Alexandra Tyer’s father did not like dictators. And so they did not like him.

Gustavo Avila got jailed by Cuba’s Fidel Castro when Alexandra was 7 years old. He was released several months later, on the condition that he take his family on the first flight out to Panama.

That country granted the Cuban family asylum because Alexandra’s mother, Alejandra, was Panamanian.

In Panama, Avila, a lawyer who published his anti-government views, ran afoul of Manuel Antonio Noriega. Another monthslong jail term was the result.

The United States invasion of Panama in December 1989 set him free.

“By then he was ready to move us to Venezuela,” his daughter says, laughing.

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