Madrid/Several of the 170 Cubans deported last week from the United States had a record of serious crimes in the country, according to what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) said this Wednesday. The information provided by the organization confirms that on the flight on February 9, some of the 50 citizens of the Island who were traveling were traveling. prisoners in Guantanamosomething that had been suspected since the Cuban Ministry of the Interior announced the arrival of the Global X plane, the American charter flight company that transferred those detainees to a US prison.
“Although deportation flights to Cuba have existed for some time, the Cuban government was reluctant to accept mass deportation flights from the United States, but under the Trump Administration, these repatriation flights are occurring in record numbers,” ICE said on its X account.
Repatriation flights were approved in 2023, with Joe Biden as president, although the number of returns in 2025 (about 1,500), with the Republican as president, was much higher than that of 2024 (about 800).
What is significant about this return is, however, that Havana has accepted the return of people with crimes in the United States. “The first flight to Cuba in 2026 took out murderers, kidnappers, rapists, drug traffickers and other criminals,” ICE stated in its message, where it provided the identities of several of them.
Among those deported are Yondeivis Wong Den-Hernandez, convicted of murder and collaboration with the illegal entry of a migrant; Raúl Duquenzne-Batista, a member of a gang and with a history of robbery already in Cuba in addition to other crimes in the United States – assaults, rape and kidnapping, among them; and Orlando Sánchez-Sarria, with a conviction for grand theft and several crimes linked to drug trafficking.
In addition, two others had a history of less serious crimes, such as Gaully Quintana Martínez, who served time in a correctional facility for assault, and Alexander Padron-Marten, arrested for drug possession.
According to the official note from the Cuban authorities, among those deported there were 153 men and 17 women, of whom three were transferred to investigation bodies as they were considered presumed responsible for criminal acts committed before leaving the country. The reference is common on these flights from the US and is usually linked to human trafficking, although in this case it has not been specified.
The fact that this is the first time that, according to the United States, the Cuban Government admits convicts on a deportation flight has raised numerous speculations about whether the event has been negotiated or is a concession from Havana in order to bring closer positions in the midst of Washington’s oil siege.
This Wednesday, the American media Axios stated that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is holding talks with Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro. The Cuban authorities, disassociated from the negotiations according to that version, have maintained on several occasions that they are willing to speak with the White House and that, in fact, they are already doing so on immigration issues, although they have not acknowledged having made any concessions for the moment.
