A video circulating on social media shows the Cuban Roberto Mosquera del Peral, deported by the United States to the African kingdom of Eswatini, reflecting with anguish on his situation from the place where he is being held.
Sitting in a chair, gazing at the scenery around him, the man describes the routine he repeats almost every day as he tries to understand how he ended up so far from his life in the United States.
"What the hell am I doing here in Africa? Explain it to me. What are we doing here in Africa?" he asks in the video, looking visibly bewildered.
Mosquera states that he usually sits down every afternoon to contemplate his surroundings while trying to make sense of his reality. “I come here every day to look at this… and I wonder what I’m doing here,” he says, addressing a friend he identifies as Félix.
In his testimony, he also criticizes the process that led to his transfer to the African continent. While expressing respect for the U.S. military, he stated that the deportation was executed "illegally" and questioned why migrants of different nationalities are being sent to third countries.
"That's not done… they are deporting Cubans and Vietnamese to other countries for money," he states in the video.
The Cuban also speaks about his family history and his relationship with the Cuban regime. He recounts that his mother was a political prisoner on the island for 18 months after being accused because of her faith as a Jehovah's Witness. He also remembered that his family left Cuba in 1980 after seeking refuge in the Peruvian embassy in Havana.
Mosquera maintains that he cannot return to Cuba either. "Cuba sent a message saying that we had already lost our Cuban citizenship," he asserts in the recording.
“United States doesn’t want us. Africa says we are not Africans. So where are we from?” he laments.
The Cuban was arrested in Miami by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in June 2025. U.S. authorities noted that he had a serious criminal record, including violent offenses.
In July of that same year, he was deported to Eswatini, a small absolute monarchy in southern Africa, as part of the expulsion program to third countries initiated by the Donald Trump administration for migrants whose countries of origin refuse to accept them.
The decision generated criticism from human rights organizations, which questioned the legality and the conditions in which the deportees remain in that African country.
Mosquera has been held in the maximum security prison of Matsapha, near the capital Mbabane. In recent months, his family and lawyers reported that he was in a "legal black hole", with limited access to legal assistance and restricted communication with his loved ones.
In October, his lawyer reported that he had initiated a hunger strike to protest his situation and the lack of clarity regarding his future.
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