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Yanet Soto Castellanos, the young Cuban from the Isle of Youth who had been missing in Havana for several days along with her baby of just over a month, was found this Wednesday, bringing an end to the distressing search that her family had made public since Monday.
The news was by Hipólito Scull, Yanet's uncle, to journalist Alberto Arego, who had shared the case on social media: «Hello, she has been found. Thanks to your post, we were contacted and told where she was».
Yanet was found in a small motel near the Monkey Farm, in the vicinity of the Sports City, in the Cerro municipality of Havana.
After the discovery, the family immediately headed to the William Soler Pediatric Hospital, as the baby had a rash on the skin.
"Let's go to the William Soler Pediatric Hospital, look at the child's condition," said Hipólito Scull while delivering the news.
The search for Yanet and her baby in Havana was made public on Monday, when the family turned to journalist Arego due to the lack of response from the authorities.
Yanet has mental health issues and traveled to Havana in October 2025 for a romantic relationship, leaving her four-year-old son on the Island under the care of his father and grandmother.
The family was unaware of her pregnancy. They found out that she had given birth on April 4 at the Ramón González Coro Gyneco-Obstetric Hospital thanks to a friend who saw her there.
When they arrived the next day, Yanet had already been discharged, and the staff did not know where she had gone.
The institutional search proved to be practically useless: the family faced indifference at the Public Health Department of the Cotorro municipality and endured long waits at the Zapata police station, where they arrived at 11:30 in the morning and were not attended to until 8:18 in the evening.
Weeks later, an officer called solely to ask if the family had found Yanet on their own, without offering any new information.
Hipólito Scull also addressed reports suggesting family abandonment: "At no point did he leave her alone; she hid where she was living and her pregnancy."
It was the dissemination of the case on social media that enabled the discovery, following a recurring pattern in Cuba where viralization on digital platforms compensates for the lack of official mechanisms for missing persons alerts.
Similar cases have been reported in Mayarí in 2024, in Villa Clara in March of this year, and in Santiago de Cuba in November 2025, all resolved thanks to viral posts on Facebook.
"We are not blaming any institution. We just want to know her whereabouts so we can help her as the family we are," Hipólito Scull had stated hours before the good news arrived.
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