The Salvadoran content creator Óscar Sandoval, known on social media as Gordo Soyacity, recounted the fear he experienced during his recent trip to Cuba and revealed that he was detained and interrogated by authorities as he was about to leave the island, a situation that caused his wife to break down in tears while waiting for him on the other side of immigration control.
"My wife cried when they detained me on the way back," the influencer shared in an interview with Salvadoran communicator Romeo Lemus, published on Wednesday on YouTube, in which he provided new details about his time in Cuba.
Soyacity explained that the authorities took him to a room while his wife had already passed through the control area. He stayed there for about 20 minutes.
“She was on the other side and I was on this side. They kept me there for about 20 minutes, and she was already desperate,” she recalled.
According to his testimony, during the interrogation, they asked him again why he had traveled to Cuba, what places he had visited, and whether he was carrying cameras. He even offered to hand over his phone, but he stated that by then he no longer had the material he had recorded during the trip stored on it.
The content creator had taken precautions during his stay: he recorded his journey solely on a cell phone and sent the files out of the island. Moreover, he decided not to publish the videos until he was outside of Cuba, or at least after arriving in Panama.
Suspicion began from the moment they arrived. Soyacity recounted that he and his wife were initially separated at the airport and subjected to questions about their activities and the equipment they were carrying.
According to their account, his wife was asked if they were carrying a drone, antennas for connecting to the Internet, or other devices that would allow communication with the outside world. Ultimately, the authorities allowed both of them to enter the country.
During their stay, Soyacity explored various places in Havana and documented scenes of everyday life that they later published in a series of videos on their YouTube channel.
In one of them, published on September 8, he summarized the journey he took with his wife through the Cuban capital before traveling to Varadero.
The Salvadoran recounted that they walked through the streets of Havana, conversed with residents, and visited, among other places, a cinema, a funeral home, a cemetery, pharmacies, and a shopping mall, where they documented the difficulties they encountered. He also stated that they spoke with people who, on that day, had still not been able to eat.
The trip to Varadero ultimately left them with a different impression. There, they found hotels, tourists, food, drinks, pools, and beaches—a scene that Soyacity described as a stark contrast to what they had observed during their previous tours of Havana.
"The more we looked at the images, the less we wanted to show them off," he explained in that video. He recalled that they could be sitting at a table full of food while simultaneously thinking about the line they had seen to get a piece of bread, or gazing at a hotel overflowing with luxury while remembering the streets they had walked just days before.
The creator then clarified that he did not intend to present his experience as an absolute description of Cuba: "We were only there for a few days, we saw certain places, spoke with certain people, and our experience is just that—our experience."
However, during the interview with Lemus, he acknowledged that documenting those realities filled him with fear while he was still on the island.
"I was more afraid of the government," he stated while recalling the feelings he experienced during the trip. He mentioned fearing that the authorities might prevent him from leaving Cuba because of the content he had been recording.
"The risks are real," he stated. Soyacity expressed that he had never felt such joy in leaving a country as he did when he managed to leave Cuba, as he had come to fear that they might prevent him from returning home.
The tension ended when the couple was able to continue their journey.
Soyacity shared that he and his wife celebrated upon arriving in Panama and stepping onto Panamanian soil, after several days during which, as he described, they lived with the uncertainty that the recordings could cause them problems with the Cuban authorities.
Despite the experience, the Salvadoran spoke fondly of the people he met during his stay and expressed his desire to return to talk with the Cubans again, although he acknowledged that, after what happened, he doubts he will be able to do so.
"I don't think I can go again," she concluded.
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