Yoelsi Linares Reyes, a Cuban deported from the United States on February 9, 2026, publicly claims to have been tortured and threatened by agents of the Cuban State Security upon his arrival at Havana airport, and is urgently seeking help to leave the island.
According to his testimony, published on the Facebook profile of the "Anti-Communist Movement and Defenders of Freedom", upon landing he was immediately intercepted by regime agents and taken to Villa Marista, the headquarters of the Department of State Security in Havana, internationally documented as a center for arbitrary detention and torture against dissidents.
Linares Reyes was held at that facility from February 9 to 17. "I was taken to Villamarista. There I was interrogated, there I was tortured, there I was threatened," he recounted in a video posted on the same profile.
On February 25, he was summoned again, this time at the Cotorro unit, where the pressures continued. "They threatened me, saying that if I stepped even a foot out of line, they would put me in prison for thirty years," he reported.
Cuban authorities warned him that he needed to leave the country as soon as possible. "They told me they would give me a time to leave Cuba and that once I had the money ready, I should buy my ticket and go, because it wasn't convenient for them to have me here in Cuba, as I am a focal point as a leader," he explained.
Linares Reyes identifies as a member of the Constitutional Legal Government of Transition for Cuba (GJCCT), an exiled opposition organization that advocates for the Cuban Constitution of 1940. He claims to have actively participated in live broadcasts on YouTube criticizing the regime, which allegedly provoked retaliation from State Security.
He had been living in the United States since August 16, 2022, working in the hospitality sector at the WinStar World Casino and Resort in Oklahoma, without any criminal record or disciplinary issues. He remained in the country under Form I-220A, a document from the ICE immigration agency that temporarily releases migrants under supervision without granting them permanent legal status.
Under Donald Trump's second administration, I-220A holders became a priority target for deportations, with nearly 2,000 Cubans deported by March 2026. The flight on February 9 transported 170 Cubans to José Martí International Airport.
Since his return, Linares Reyes has reported constant surveillance and that family members and neighbors have been pressured to distance themselves from him. "Since my return to Cuba, I have been subjected to constant surveillance, interrogations, and harassment by the authorities due to my views that oppose the regime," he stated in his written complaint.
Your case fits within a documented pattern of reprisals by the regime against deportees with a political profile. In January 2026, the activist Guillermo del Sol was interrogated for 12 hours by Cuban intelligence upon being deported from the United States. On the same flight that Linares Reyes arrived, the Ministry of Interior acknowledged that three individuals were taken to investigative bodies upon landing.
Linares Reyes makes an urgent appeal to Cuban-American congress members María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart, as well as to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to address his case. "I fear for my freedom and my physical safety. The Cuban regime is holding me under threats, and I find myself in a high-risk situation," he warned.
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