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Denis Cabrera Rodríguez, a 33-year-old Cuban dissident, is in critical health condition while in custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports from his family and confirmed by Amnesty International in an urgent action published on December 12, 2025.
The human rights organization report indicates that Cabrera was arrested on November 26, 2025 and remains detained at the Krome North Detention Center in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The document specifies that Denis “suffers from type 1 diabetes and depends on an insulin pump,” but ICE “refuses to allow him to have his insulin pump while in custody, thereby depriving him of adequate medical care.”
Amnesty warns that his health “is deteriorating rapidly” and that the detainee “requires urgent and ongoing medical attention that can only be adequately received while free.” The organization emphasizes that “without proper care, Denis is at risk of suffering severe medical complications due to his underlying chronic illness, including limb amputation, coma, and death.”
Her relative Olga Soto requested public visibility for the case and reported alleged medical negligence. “I urge you to make this case visible, as besides the fact that Denis is an opposition figure who cannot return to Cuba, he is being unjustly detained without reason and his life is in danger due to multiple instances of medical negligence,” she declared to CiberCuba.
According to Amnesty International, Cabrera Rodríguez is “an artist and human rights activist connected to artistic movements such as San Isidro and 27N” and “in Cuba he was censored, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and subjected to forced disappearance due to his work and activism.” He entered the United States in 2022 and his application for political asylum is still pending.
The same document details that, after his arrest, Denis was taken to the ICE center in Miramar, where “he fainted and had to be transferred to Memorial Hospital Miramar because he was at risk of having a heart attack.” Three days later, he was taken to Krome North, where Amnesty warns that his health continues to deteriorate.
The case was also mentioned by El País in a report published on December 16, 2025, which documents the complaints of sick migrants and organizations regarding the inadequate medical care at the Krome detention center.
Amnesty International warned that the conditions in that center “have been well documented by numerous organizations” and that during the fiscal year 2025 “four men have died while being detained at Krome”, which “has raised deep concerns about access to quality medical care at the center.”
The organization requested the immediate release of Denis Cabrera Rodríguez and urged the ICE authorities to ensure he receives the medical treatment he needs. It also called on the public to write to the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in Miami, Kelei Walker, at the email address Miami.Outreach@ice.dhs.gov, to demand urgent protective measures and adequate medical care.
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