Almost four years after being involved in one of the most unusual escapes in recent Cuban history, Rubén Martínez Machado lives in Lansing, Michigan, with granted political asylum and a rebuilt life far from the Cuban exile community in Florida.
In an interview with Telemundo 51, the pilot discussed his current life, recounted his escape from Cuba, the months of detention, and explained why he decided to move away from South Florida.
A new life in Michigan
Today he lives alone in Lansing with his pet Caramelo, works as an operator at a recycling company, and proudly displays a large American flag at his home.
He is waiting for his permanent residency to be approved so he can resume his career as a pilot, the profession that once helped him cross the Florida Straits and leave behind the dictatorship.
Recognizes having received threats from the regime: "At first yes, but... this is indeed complicated (...) in the end, I have remained silent."
That is one of the reasons why it was not established in Florida.
The other is his disappointment with certain sectors of the Cuban-American community:
"If I’m honest, I always expected a bit more support from the Cuban-American community, and in part I did receive some, but then influencers seemed to twist the narrative, making it so that getting views was much more important than fighting for Cuba's freedom. So I thought: well, I see that what we have here is a rat trap, so it’s better not to get involved in this."
Rubén has also been accused on social media of being a spy for the regime, an allegation he vehemently denies.
A decision he does not regret
Regarding whether the escape was an impulsive act or a premeditated plan, Rubén was straightforward:
"I had been thinking about it for a long time. The problem was finding the courage to take action and determining when the right moment was, although in the end, when you finally do it, nothing turns out as planned. If I could turn back time, I would have done it much sooner and in different ways."
And he added a reflection on the reality he left behind: "The problem is that in the end, communism doesn’t work; it will never work. How long has it been since I came? 4 or 5 years? And that hasn’t changed; it’s much worse."
The flight that changed everything
On October 21, 2022, Martínez Machado took off from the El Cedro airfield in Sancti Spíritus aboard an Antonov AN-2 - a Soviet biplane used in Cuba for agricultural spraying - and landed before noon at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Florida Everglades.
He was 29 years old and was a pilot in the tenth pilot training course in Cuba, where he worked for the Cuban Air Services Company.
"I remember it with fear, I don't know... Fear, fear of what could happen, but in the end, everything turned out fine," he said about that day.
Regarding the flight path, he had previously confessed: "I was flying low and worried that someone might be following me. At one point, I focused and said, whatever happens, happens."
The landing and the arrest
Upon landing, the encounter with the authorities was etched in his memory:
"While landing the plane, the controller rather asked me who I was and what I was doing, and I told him: I'm from Cuba running from communism. I heard him say 'oooh' and he instructed me to stay on the plane. Then someone came, knocked on the door, I opened it, and they started asking what I was doing. I explained the same thing: 'I'm from Cuba running from communism,' and he said: 'Welcome to the USA.'"
However, the welcome was not immediate.
The authorities denied him bail on two occasions and kept him detained for four months at the Pompano Beach center, while the Cuban regime labeled his escape as an "act of air piracy" and State Security detained his mother and sisters in Santa Clara.
From the detention center, the pilot expressed his distress: “They may not, they are going to murder me, it’s no longer a question of whether they will do it or not, it’s that they are going to do it.”
The fear was justified: the Cuban Penal Code, in effect since December 2022, includes the death penalty for crimes against the safety of air navigation.
Asylum and Freedom
On February 23, 2023, after a hearing of at least four hours, an immigration judge in Miami granted political asylum to Martínez Machado. The prosecution raised no objections.
His lawyer, the Cuban-American Eduardo Soto, celebrated the ruling: "The pilot stays in the United States! From the beginning, I believed in my client, I believed in my abilities, and I believe in American law, and in the end, we triumphed."
The next day, now free, Rubén stated: "I always believed that the United States would welcome me."
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