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A new deportation flight from the United States landed last Thursday in Havana, filled not only with over 150 handcuffed and crying Cubans but also with testimonies that depict the human cost of the largest migration wave in the island's history.
The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) limited itself to announcing on its social media that this was the eighth operation so far in 2025 and the 33rd from various countries in the region, without providing details about who was traveling, their profiles, or their immediate destination. Hours later, the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso spoke of 161 irregular migrants (37 women and 124 men), but without offering more specifics.
However, while the official Cuban discourse insisted on compliance with migration agreements with Washington, an exclusive report from the independent media outlet Belly of the Beast, in collaboration with CBS News, revealed another side of the story, featuring detainees in handcuffs, tears upon disembarking from the plane, and families shattered by deportation.
The cameras captured the moment when the agents welcomed the deportees on the runway of the José Martí International Airport. Shortly after, stories emerged from those who were separated from their children in the United States.
A mother tearfully recounted that she was forced to leave her two-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, with her grandmother. “They mistreated me, they forced me to leave my daughter. They said I couldn't leave the country,” she said.
The same woman recounted that immigration detained her three months ago and forced her to give her fingerprints while preventing her from leaving with her daughter. “I always said that I didn't want anything from the United States, just give me my girl. But if they don't return her to me, I would risk my life again and leave, throw me in jail,” she declared.
A woman, for her part, admitted that the deportation left her separated from her son and two grandsons. "I am still processing this," she said, and when asked what she was going to do, she responded: "Nothing, my home, I have my cousin here and that's how we'll move forward in our country."
Other deportees shared that they return with resignation to rebuild their lives in Cuba. One of them admitted that the "American dream" was not what he expected: "When we realize the harsh reality of what life is like, there is no country like this".
The access of Belly of the Beast to the inner workings of the flight was unusual and could only occur with the authorization of the Cuban regime. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) official, Johana Tablada, herself shared the report on her social media, demonstrating the government's interest in amplifying this narrative. However, far from neutralizing the impact, the images and testimonials collected expose a human drama that transcends any attempt at propaganda.
According to CBS News, the flight on August 28 transported 150 Cubans detained in U.S. immigration centers. It was the eighth of this year and another in the long list of forced returns that continue under the bilateral agreements signed during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
The Cuban government assures that it will maintain its commitment to these agreements to ensure a “safe, regular, and orderly migration flow,” even though the United States interrupted bilateral talks and the Trump administration tightened sanctions and eliminated programs that protected thousands of migrants.
In the last five years, more than one million Cubans have emigrated, the largest wave in the country's history. Many of them sought a different future in the United States, but for hundreds, like the passengers on this flight, the experience ended with handcuffs on their wrists and the heartbreaking weight of family separation.
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