At least 85 Cuban migrants were deported to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, from the airport Alexandria, Louisiana, on a flight that departed at dawn on Thursday without anyone informing them of their destination, according to the account of one of the affected individuals collected this Saturday.
Eric González Peña, 44 years old, recounted that the migrants were taken out of the detention centers and led to the aircraft handcuffed at the wrists and ankles, without the possibility of communicating with their families or knowing the country to which they would be sent.
The group consisted of 80 women and five men, many of whom were detained in raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Tension escalated when, already on the plane, the authorities informed them that they would be flying to Africa, although they did not specify which country. Faced with this uncertainty, the migrants stood up in a collective attempt to prevent the takeoff. The protest had no effect: the aircraft departed regardless.
The journey lasted nearly 60 hours, a period during which families in the United States remained uninformed. Immigration authorities only stated that their loved ones had been "removed" from the country, without specifying the destination or conditions.
The confusion upon landing was extreme. Some of the deportees wondered if they had arrived in Equatorial Guinea.
It was Yasmany Noel Moreno de Armas, a Cuban sent to that same country in August, who explained to them where they were and acted as a liaison with the families through a live broadcast on the TikTok account of immigrant Raúl Hernández, which lasted for much of the night.
The case of González Peña illustrates the profile of those affected. He was detained by ICE in March 2026 while working in Texas and was first transferred to El Paso and then to Louisiana, with no explanation provided to his family.
His last communication was on Wednesday, October 21, from an airport in Alexandria in that state. His wife, Isabel Estua, a U.S. citizen and mother of the couple's baby, spent nearly 60 hours without knowing his whereabouts until he called her from Bangui this Saturday.
Several of the deportees claimed not to have a criminal record in the United States, and some insisted that they had not signed deportation documents, although these circumstances have not been independently verified.
Once in Bangui, the newcomers received vaccinations for yellow fever, antimalarial medications, and some clothing items.
The most immediate gesture, however, came from the Cubans deported in previous months, who awaited them with internet access cards and buttered bread so they could communicate with their families.
The conditions in the Central African capital are precarious. Moreno reported on October 17 that almost all of the deportees showed symptoms of malaria and that medical care was inadequate.
The Central African Republic recorded nearly two million cases of the disease and over 2,000 deaths in 2023, according to international health data.
This flight is part of a broader policy of deportations to third countries driven by the Trump administration.
Between June and August 2026, at least 92 people of different nationalities were sent to Bangui on three previous flights, and between January 2025 and August 2026, ICE deported 536 individuals to 12 different African countries from their country of nationality, according to data analyzed by Human Rights Watch.
Alexandria Airport in Louisiana has established itself as one of the main departure points for these flights. According to Senator Markwayne Mullin, up to six deportation flights can depart daily from that facility.
Another Cuban deported to Bangui at the end of July, Arístides Fernández García, managed to leave the country on October 19 with the help of the International Organization for Migration and arrived in Bolivia two days later, marking one of the few documented cases of departure so far.
Este caso forma parte de una serie de operaciones migratorias que afectan a cubanos en Estados Unidos. Sigue todos los detalles en nuestra sección de .
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