The Cuban singer Baby Lores reported this Saturday that the Cuban regime prevented him from boarding a flight to the island while he was trying to make an emergency trip to visit his mother, who is seriously ill in intensive care, as he described in a video and a post on Facebook.
The artist, based in Miami, reported that he bought his ticket, boarded the plane, and waited for takeoff, but minutes before the flight was set to depart, he was forced to disembark.
"I decided to get a ticket and Cuba denied me entry; I was taken off the plane. And these are the consequences of... standing by the truth," he said from the airport in the video that accompanied his complaint.
In his written message, Baby Lores was more forceful: "I bought my ticket, boarded the plane, and sat down waiting for takeoff. Minutes before departure, they made me get off. They denied me entry to the country where I was born."
The musician stated that so far he has not received any official explanation from the Cuban authorities and directly linked the decision to his recent public positions. "This comes after I decided to stop staying silent, to speak publicly, and to denounce what I consider abuses, censorship, and repression in Cuba," he wrote.
Far from being intimidated, the artist warned that the ban would have the opposite effect: "They didn't silence me. They did exactly the opposite. Because preventing me from entering Cuba doesn't erase what I think. It doesn't erase where I was born. It doesn't erase my history. It doesn't erase my family. And it certainly doesn't erase my voice."
Baby Lores concluded his statement with a phrase that summarizes his stance on the events: "If to silence an artist they have to shut the doors of their own land, then they were never afraid of his music. They were afraid of his voice."
Baby Lores has taken increasingly critical positions towards the regime in recent months. He participated in the judicial hearing of the artist El Insurrecto in April of this year, and in December 2025, he spoke out publicly when that artist was arrested. His foundation Somos Esperanza received recognition at the Capitol in Washington in March 2026 for its work with children with autism and other different abilities.
The ban comes months after a painful family loss: last June, the singer's grandmother passed away, who had also been hospitalized.
On that occasion, Baby Lores expressed gratitude for having been able to say goodbye to her during a trip to the island in January 2025, the first he had taken in six years.
The Cuban regime has a long history of denying access to the country for artists and public figures who express criticism. The concept of the "regulated" — a migratory restriction applied without formal legal process — has been used against dissidents and creators.
The musician Gorki Águila was detained by State Security in May 2024 while attempting to leave the country, and the comedian Alexis Valdés has publicly stated that he has not been allowed to enter Cuba since 2002.
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