A Cuban deported from the United States intervened between armed police and another migrant held in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea, while a supervisor repeatedly ordered the officers, "Shoot him! Shoot him!".
The tense episode occurred on September 4 at the Bamy hotel in Malabo and was captured in cell phone videos published this Wednesday by The American Prospect.
The images show Ahmed Soliman, a 30-year-old Egyptian-American who has been detained at the location since April, kneeling with his hands raised empty. In front of him, a man in a black t-shirt extends his arms and positions himself between Soliman and the officers, while one of the police kneels and aims a rifle at them.
Soliman identified the man trying to protect him as a Cuban citizen who had arrived at the hotel just two weeks earlier.
"He interposed himself trying to protect me," he declared to the American media.
According to the available information about the group of deportees and the circumstances of the case, the man is likely Leonardo Sánchez Fernández, a 49-year-old Cuban from San Miguel del Padrón who had been living for years in Lehigh Acres, Florida. Sánchez had legal permanent residency in the United States before being deported.
ICE expelled him on August 20 on a flight that departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, with an initial destination of Liberia. Upon arrival, Sánchez and other Cubans refused to disembark from the plane, after which they were taken to Malabo.
Sánchez later reported that he spent more than 36 hours handcuffed at both his hands and feet during the transfer.
His situation is particularly delicate due to his health condition. The Cuban suffers from a large ventral hernia after undergoing nine surgeries stemming from multiple stab wounds he received nearly a decade ago in Hialeah, which left him in a coma for 40 days.
A tenth surgical intervention was planned at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, but upon arriving in Equatorial Guinea, she reported that she was unable to receive medical care at a local hospital.
"At the hospital, they said that if I didn't have documents, the doctors wouldn't be responsible for me," he then recounted.
The confrontation on September 4th occurred after several days of tension at the hotel. According to The American Prospect, on August 31st, Soliman and other migrants from third countries began a hunger strike to demand travel documents.
According to the available information, the incident ended with the arrival of an official whom the migrants refer to as "the Director."
"He calmed everyone down," Soliman recounted. His phone was returned to him, although others who were deported still do not have their devices, which are one of their main means of communication with family and the outside world.
The Bamy hotel operates, according to The American Prospect, as a de facto detention center for migrants deported by the United States to third countries. The outlet reports that at least 63 people have been transferred there on six ICE flights since November 2025.
The deportations occur as a result of an agreement between the administration of Donald Trump and the government of Equatorial Guinea, led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979.
The American Prospect estimates the agreement at 7.5 million dollars and indicates that the funds come from resources allocated for humanitarian assistance to refugees.
Soliman acknowledged that he fears possible reprisals after the images came to light, but insisted he is "willing to be scared."
For him, the recordings now provide evidence of what is happening inside the hotel: “Now there are videos of them violating their supposed diplomatic guarantees.”
Este caso forma parte de una cadena de consecuencias derivadas de las deportaciones impulsadas por ICE. Sigue todos los detalles en nuestra sección de
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