The Cuban comedian Jardiel González, known as "El Flaco de Cuba," reported this Friday on Instagram that he was detained and taken to an interrogation room during a layover at Miami airport, causing him to miss his connecting flight to Punta Cana.
The artist was traveling on the Havana-Miami-Punta Cana route when immigration authorities separated him from the flow of passengers.
"They put me in a small room here in Miami, the flight was to Punta Cana... they put me in a little room to interrogate me, to ask me questions, an investigation," he explained in the video, adding, "I imagine it's because I'm Cuban, with my passport and my visa and all that background."
As a result of the delay, Jardiel was unable to board his connecting flight that Friday and had to spend the night in Miami.
The airlines rescheduled his flight for Saturday, a day later than planned, which complicated his schedule: he had a performance in Punta Cana at the event known as "el Balsarao" precisely on that first Saturday of August.
Despite the scare, the comedian maintained his characteristic tone throughout the story, joking about the cold from the air conditioning in the small room and his own thinness. "What a way to shake, how cold people get. I imagine you're used to the 40 degrees in Marianao," he said with laughter.
The episode occurs in a context of increasing scrutiny of Cuban travelers at Miami airport. Cuban influencer La Damosky reported a similar situation on July 24, when she was detained for nearly three hours upon arriving from the Dominican Republic, with her passport and phones confiscated.
In March of this year, at least 16 activists from the Convoy Nuestra América were interrogated in Miami upon returning from Cuba, with searches of their phones and computers. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities have described these procedures as "routine secondary inspections."
Jardiel, a former member of the comedy group Punto y Coma, left Cuba in January 2025 and returned to Miami in October of that year after seven years away, where he reunited with his daughter.
Far from being defeated by the setback, the comedian concluded his video with some philosophy: "Everything flows better if you laugh."
After the forced stop in Miami, Jardiel has a busy schedule ahead, which includes performances in Italy, Zaragoza, Madrid, Tarragona, Valencia, and Panama during August and September.
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