After years of trying to emigrate, selling the house he inherited from his grandparents, and having been a victim of two alleged scams in different countries, the Matanzas resident Yehan Perdomo claims that he is now in a desperate situation: stranded in Cuba because the lawyer he hired in Paraguay never completed his immigration procedures and, as he reports, has also not returned the money he paid.
His story was featured in the Paraguayan newspaper Crónica, which recounts how the Cuban handed over 1,000 dollars to a lawyer to manage his asylum application with the National Commission of Stateless Persons and Refugees (CONARE), along with other documents that would allow him to regularize his immigration status.
None of that happened.
Yehan and his mother arrived in Paraguay in July 2025, after crossing from Brazil via the Friendship Bridge. Their intention was to settle in Asunción, but they ended up in Ciudad del Este, where, through a lawyer known to Yehan from a work experience in Brazil, they were referred to a colleague based in Presidente Franco.
According to the Cuban, the lawyer committed to processing the asylum application and managing a migration mechanism that would even facilitate future family reunification.
However, a CONARE official warned them that the procedure was not being carried out correctly. According to Yehan, the lawyer herself even asked them not to mention that they were working with her.
While waiting for a response, he and his mother spent months without immigration documents, which prevented them from working legally, opening bank accounts, or accessing other basic services.
The situation worsened when her mother fell ill and she had to return to Cuba urgently. Yehan decided to accompany her.
Before leaving Paraguay, he demanded the return of his money. According to his account, the lawyer only refunded him 300 dollars and promised to pay back the rest in monthly installments, a commitment that she never fulfilled.
Back in Cuba, she encountered another obstacle: to return to Paraguay, she needed an invitation letter, which the same lawyer had to provide, as no one else she knew was willing to do it.
The Cuban claims that he tried to contact her numerous times, but he had been blocked on WhatsApp. After locating her through family members, the woman agreed to prepare the document in exchange for a new payment. The letter, he asserts, never arrived.
Since then, Yehan has made several trips from Matanzas to the Paraguayan Embassy in Havana to try to find a solution. He has also sent writings to the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Congress, and President Santiago Peña, but has been unable to resolve his situation.
Her frustration grew when the Supreme Court and the Public Defender's Office of Alto Paraná informed her that she can only file a criminal complaint for alleged fraud if she is physically present in Paraguay, something that is currently impossible for her due to a lack of documentation.
It's not the first time that Yehan has lost all his savings trying to emigrate.
In 2022, as documented by Diario Las Américas, he sold the house he had inherited from his grandparents to finance a journey to the United States. During that process, he paid $4,600 to a Mexican lawyer and a Cuban couple for a supposed immigration protection that turned out to be fraudulent.
In addition to that, the cost of the trip was estimated at about 3,600 dollars. He was eventually arrested at the Cancun airport and deported to Cuba a week later.
In total, he estimates that he lost around 10,000 dollars in that attempt.
The case of Yehan brings back to light a problem that affects numerous Cuban migrants: networks of fake lawyers and agents who promise to regularize immigration processes or obtain documents in exchange for large sums of money, taking advantage of individuals seeking to leave the island.
Despite everything that has happened, Yehan assures that he has not given up on his goal of rebuilding his life outside of Cuba. "The only thing I have left, nothing else I can do, is to leave here," he said after his deportation from Mexico in 2022. Four years later, that statement continues to define his reality.
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