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The Federal Highway Police (PRF) of Brazil rescued 39 Cuban migrants who were being transported in three rented vehicles on the BR-401 highway, in the municipality of Cantá, in the state of Roraima, about 10 kilometers from Boa Vista.
Two men were arrested in the act for promoting illegal immigration, and a third man managed to escape before being apprehended.
According to the PRF, this is the largest rescue of Cuban migrants in a single operation recorded by the agency in the state.
Among the 39 rescued were elderly individuals, a pregnant woman, and at least 10 children under the age of 10, some of whom had respiratory issues.
At the time of being intercepted, the migrants had been three days without food.
The PRF agent Isaías Magalhães explained the extent of the criminal network: "Many of these individuals do not have Boa Vista as their final destination. The capital serves only as a transit point. This criminal network charges for the complete package, from the departure from Cuba to the final destination within Brazil."
Part of the group was headed to the city of Curitiba in the state of Paraná, while others planned to continue on to Uruguay.
The clandestine route started in Cuba, passed through Georgetown and Lethem—cities in Guyana that border Brazil—and used Roraima as the entry point to the country.
Guyana does not require a visa for Cuban citizens, which facilitates air travel prior to the land route to Brazil: migrants travel from Havana to Georgetown, proceed by land to Lethem, and cross the Tacutu River clandestinely into Brazilian territory.
Migrants paid between 300 and 2,800 dollars to traffickers for the journey, depending on the segment contracted.
All those rescued and the two detainees were transferred to the Federal Police headquarters in Boa Vista.
This operation is part of a series of recent interventions.
On June 1st, the police found nine Cubans cramped in a car in Roraima and arrested the driver. On May 27th, officers intercepted 21 migrants, including 18 Cubans, in three vehicles in the same area.
In February of this year, Operation Malecón dismantled in Boa Vista a network that had trafficked at least 200 Cubans in just three months, led by the Venezuelan José Alberto Lira Lezama.
Between 2024 and 2026, the PRF rescued 189 migrants in 24 operations on federal highways in Roraima, arrested 31 suspected traffickers, and seized 31 vehicles. 91% of those rescued are Cubans.
In the first quarter of 2026, more than 13,000 Cubans sought refuge in Brazil, a trend that reflects the severe economic, political, and social crisis imposed by the dictatorship on the island.
On the same Monday, new operations increased the total number of Cubans rescued in Roraima in a single day to 108 people, in what the PRF described as the largest rescue operation of Cuban migrants recorded in the state in a single day.
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