U.S. citizens who traveled to Cuba to participate in events marking the centenary of Fidel Castro were detained and subjected to secondary screenings by Customs and Border Protection agents upon their arrival at Miami International Airport, according to the Associated Press, citing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The operation took place on the weekend of August 16 and 17, days after more than 1,500 delegates from 63 countries attended the I International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future", held in Havana from August 10 to 13 to commemorate the centenary of the Cuban dictator.
Several of the intercepted travelers had their cell phones, laptops, and tablets confiscated for inspection, although the status of those devices was unclear at the time of publication.
The authorities were prepared to subject dozens of activists to enhanced interrogations, but many fewer met the established criteria for that procedure.
All the detainees were eventually released and allowed to enter the country, although authorities warned that those who have engaged in transactions with entities of the Cuban government—such as restaurants, hotels, and stores—could face legal consequences if a subsequent investigation determines that they violated existing sanctions.
The operation in Miami is not the first of its kind in 2026: in March, at least 16 activists from the Convoy Nuestra América were detained and interrogated for about three hours at the same airport upon returning from Cuba, with phones and equipment being confiscated.
Last Thursday, the Treasury and State Departments announced a new round of sanctions against nine Cuban state-owned companies in the mining, metals, and construction sectors, including the Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara Nickel Company, the Salinero Mining Business Group, and the Ministry of Construction.
The measures also targeted three leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP): its president Fernando González Llort, its first vice president Noemí Ramona Rabaza Fernández, and its director for North America Leima Martínez Freire.
González Llort has a history with the U.S. justice system: he was arrested in 1998 and sentenced in 2001 for his role in the Wasp Network, a Cuban intelligence operation infiltrated into exile groups in Miami. He spent about 15 years in prison on U.S. soil before returning to Cuba in 2014.
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the ICAP of sponsoring "a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, recruiting, and radicalizing" American citizens, and directly linked the Havana colloquium to that strategy.
"Just a few days ago, the regime attempted to use the 100th anniversary of the communist leader and despot Fidel Castro to revitalize this subversive network, bringing a new brigade of international supporters to Havana to establish contacts with regime officials," Rubio stated in a press release.
The Secretary of State went further by stating that "the Trump administration will not remain idle while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms—freedoms that no one in its own country enjoys—by deceiving and corrupting American citizens with lies, espionage techniques, and other wrongdoing."
Rubio also warned that banks and foreign companies that maintain ties with the sanctioned entities expose themselves to being designated as well.
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla rejected the new sanctions and accused them of hindering the transport of food, medicines, and medical devices to Cuba, mostly acquired by small and medium-sized private Cuban businesses.
The sanctions announced on Thursday are framed within Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, 2026, and represent the fourth round of punitive measures implemented since then against the Cuban regime in military, financial, energy, mining, and construction sectors.
Any American citizen who is detained and released at the airport could still face legal proceedings if ongoing investigations determine that they engaged in prohibited transactions during their stay on the Island.
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