Cuban crosses illegally into Guyana and ends up fined and deported in record time

A Cuban citizen identified as Yosbani Suárez Areces, 49 years old, was fined and deported from Guyana on April 1 after pleading guilty to unlawful entry into the country, according to reports from the Guyana Police.

Suárez Areces, a resident operator in Boa Vista, Roraima state (Brazil), appeared virtually before Senior Magistrate Clive Nurse at the Mahdia Magistrates' Court, alongside four Brazilian citizens also charged with the same offense, local media reported.

The other four involved were Samuel Dionisa Soares, 24 years old; Rafael Da Conceicao Viera, 30; Deusimar Feitosa Dos Santos, 53, all operators or workers from Boa Vista; and Berto Dasena, a worker from Marau, Brazil.

They all pleaded guilty to crossing a land border without presenting themselves to the nearest immigration officer, in violation of Article 34(1)(b) of the Immigration Act of Guyana, Chapter 14:02.

Each accused was fined 30,000 Guyanese dollars or faced six weeks of imprisonment in case of non-payment, and they were ordered to leave the country within 24 hours.

The fact that Suárez Areces lived in Boa Vista—a common destination for Cubans traveling through Guyana to Brazil—and was arrested while attempting to enter from Brazil suggests that the group was crossing irregularly from Brazilian territory, possibly related to work activities in the border or mining area.

The case is part of a series of similar arrests recorded in Guyana over the past few weeks. On April 15, two other Brazilians —Franscio Lopes, 47, and Junior Condrad, 32— were each fined 30,000 Guyanese dollars and deported immediately by Magistrate Omadatt Chandan at the Lethem Court after also admitting to having entered illegally by land.

Guyana is a key transit point on the migration route used by thousands of Cubans to reach Brazil. Migrants fly to Georgetown, cross overland to Lethem, and from there they reach Boa Vista, where they apply for asylum or residency documents.

In March 2025, another Cuban —Yosmel Pérez Cisneros, 39 years old, was sentenced to three years in prison in Guyana for illegally entering the country by sea, in a case that marked a significant tightening in relation to the previously applied simple deportations.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of Guyana warned that the law enforcement campaign remains active throughout the territory: "Those who violate the law will face the full weight of the law."