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The mother-in-law of Alejandro Castro Espín, son of Raúl Castro and one of the most influential figures in the Cuban security apparatus, resides in South Florida as a permanent resident of the United States and frequently travels to Cuba, confirmed Martí Noticias.
It is about Ana Adis Cardero Pacheco, mother of Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cardero, wife of Castro Espín.
The revelation comes just days after Washington directly sanctioned Alejandro Castro Espín and his son in the third and most extensive wave of pressure from the Trump administration against the Cuban regime.
According to sources verified by Martí Noticias, Cardero Pacheco arrived in the United States for the first time in 2013 with a tourist visa obtained in Mexico, made frequent trips for years, and eventually stayed in the country irregularly.
In 2023, he obtained permanent residency through the Cuban Adjustment Act, the same legislation that the Cuban regime has historically denounced as a tool of Washington's "imperialist" policy to encourage emigration from the Island.
The contradiction doesn't end there. Her other daughter, Meurys Yisell Rueda Cardero, sister-in-law of Castro Espín, also resides in Hialeah and is already a U.S. citizen.
«Ana A. Cardero Pacheco and her daughter Meurys Yisell Rueda Cardero live in Hialeah, the city with the highest concentration of Cuban exiles in the United States,» explained Luis Domínguez, researcher at the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba.
"Additionally, Castro Espín's sister-in-law appears as the owner of a company registered in Florida," he added.
Cardero Pacheco is the widow of Colonel Hugo Leandro Rueda Jomarrón, one of the founders of the Eastern Army and the Revolutionary National Militias.
According to Domínguez, "the patriarch of the family was in charge of the province of Santiago de Cuba for decades" and "organized the repression of dissent, property confiscations, and the militia system to supposedly confront the U.S."
Jomarrón participated in military missions in Angola and Nicaragua, and after his passing, he received personal tributes from Raúl Castro and recognition from the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The family has historically maintained a position of public support for the regime and its allies.
In 2012, the marriage of Ana Adis and Hugo Leandro, along with their daughters, signed an open letter addressed to then-President Hugo Chávez which stated: "Count on us, President Chávez, your victory will be our victory."
Years earlier, in 2006, Cardero Pacheco herself signed another letter addressed to the people of the United States, in which she stated that "the U.S. government cannot speak of a war against terrorism while allowing the existence of Cuban-American terrorist groups based in Miami."
The pattern of family members of the Cuban elite settled in the United States is not new. Previous investigations documented that Mariela Castro, her children, and "El Cangrejo" traveled to that country between 2012 and 2016 using diplomatic passports.
Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart reacted to the revelation by labeling them as “agents of the Castro regime” who “have no limits,” referring directly to the double standards of the Cuban nomenclature.
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