One Son Was Imprisoned in Cuba, the other in “Alligator Alcatraz”
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Yaquelín Boni, a 59 year-old Cuban dissident, has lived in the United States since 2016. Her family has fallen victim to persecution in Cuba and the US. In Cuba, she became a member of the Damas de Blanco after her son, Yasser, was arrested for his political activism. Facing the prospect of imprisonment for her own activism, Yaquelín fled to Miami in 2016, where she was granted refuge as a political exile.
Yasser was released from prison on May 3 after serving his latest sentence. Two months later, Yaquelín received a call from her other son, Alexander. He was the 289th inmate of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Ochopee, Florida. On August 17, Alexander was transferred to the Krome North Service Processing Center, a facility where detention rates have increased by 249 percent in 2025.
Yaquelín’s story is a microcosm of the experiences of Cuban immigrants, many of whom fled from persecution and insecurity and now are increasingly facing the threat of detention and deportation in the US.
A legal permanent resident, Heidy Díaz Sosa, reported that upon return from visiting Cuba, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at Miami International Airport took her to secondary inspection, where they searched through Díaz Sosa’s phone, questioned her about the trip, and warned her and her husband that they may not be allowed to return to the US if they travel to Cuba again. On X, Dr. Michael J. Bustamante cautioned that the crackdown may not be narrowly applied only to asylum seekers, but instead reflects a long-standing push by Cuba hardliners to discourage or block Cuban Americans from traveling back to the island. He noted that even if it seemed reasonable to question those who filed asylum and then returned, the broader effect is harmful: family visits are a vital lifeline amid Cuba’s crisis.
In Cuba, an independent NGO, the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit (OCAC), reported a tripling of the crime rate in 2025. Water shortages have prompted protests in Central Havana. A rise in vector-borne illnesses, like dengue and Zika, has prompted US authorities to issue a health alert to US travelers to Cuba. A surveillance report from the Florida Department of Health showed that most Floridians who were diagnosed with dengue had recently traveled to Cuba. Even Canada, Cuba’s longstanding partner in tourism, issued an alert to Canadian travelers on August 25: “Exercise a high degree of caution in Cuba due to shortages of basic necessities including food, medicine, and fuel.”
This week in Cuba news:
NGO Finds Cuba’s Crime Rate Triples in First Half of 2025
According to a report from OCAC, crime in Cuba has tripled in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period last year. Between January and June, OCAC documented 1,319 crimes, up from 432 in 2024 and 276 in 2023, making this the highest level since the group began tracking incidents. The NGO’s report includes 63 homicides, 16 of them femicides, alongside hundreds of thefts, robberies, drug-related offenses, and livestock slaughters, the latter demonstrating the island’s worsening food and economic crisis.
OCAC attributes the surge in crime to deepening economic hardship, greater availability of firearms, and the expansion of drug trafficking. While Cuba’s government has acknowledged rising violence, officials assert that crime overall is declining.
An analyst at OCAC, José Manuel González Rubines, notes that citizens are perceiving crime as being on the rise, which is being shaped by the growing number of Cubans taking to social media to post videos and photos of crimes. However, OCAC only counts cases it can independently verify. González Rubines also notes that these numbers are incomplete due to the lack of official numbers and underreporting by Cuban citizens.
China Agrees to Enhance Intelligence Sharing with Cuba
China’s state security chief, Chen Yixin, who oversees the Ministry tasked with domestic surveillance, intelligence gathering, and counter-intelligence activities, recently hosted his Cuban counterpart, Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, in Beijing. During this meeting, Chen pledged enhanced intelligence and security cooperation aimed at helping Cuba “safeguard the national security” and maintain “social stability,” particularly amid rising pressure from the Trump administration.
Álvarez Casas also met with Wang Xiaohong, China’s Minister of Public Security, who stated that China was willing to work with Cuba to increase personnel exchanges and enhance “law enforcement capacity building.”
This partnership between the two countries has deepened over the decades through economic support and technological cooperation, such as China's involvement in developing Cuba’s telecom infrastructure.
Salvadoran Citizen Convicted of Terrorism Released After Serving Sentence
Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, a Salvadoran citizen who was sentenced for terrorism by placing a bomb in a Cuban hotel in 1997, was released on August 15. Rodríguez Llerena admitted to authoring the plot to place an explosive device at the Meliá Cohiba Hotel in Havana, Cuba, under the orders of Anti-Castro leaders of the exile. These leaders, such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, orchestrated several attempts to topple Cuba’s government in the past several decades, including the explosion of the Cubana de Aviación flight that resulted in 73 deaths.
Rodríguez Llerena is the second Salvadoran to complete a 30-year sentence in Cuba, after Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, another Salvadoran man who participated in the 1997 hotel bombings, was released in December 2024.
In response to Rodríguez Llerena’s release, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying "It is necessary to remember that, while Cuba complies with its laws and guarantees that all terrorists answer before justice, the United States continues to allow violent and terrorist acts against Cuba to be organized and financed from its territory, and intellectual authors and perpetrators of terrorism to enjoy impunity."
Vietnam Red Cross Launches Campaign of Support for Cuban People
The Vietnam Red Cross launched a national donation campaign in Hanoi to rally support for the people of Cuba, commemorating the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Year and the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations. Running for 65 days, the campaign aimed to raise approximately $2.56 million to donate to Cuba’s government. The campaign has far exceeded the organizers' expectations by raising $13 million in its first week. To date, the campaign has attracted nearly 2 million individual donations, most ranging from 38 cents to $38.
Dinh Hien Mo, had watched videos detailing Cuba's support for Vietnam during the wars of the 60s and 70s. Inspired by that shared history, she contributed a donation of $19. She told the New York Times: “I feel bad that people in Cuba are suffering from economic hardship,” she said. “They’re isolated by sanctions and their economy is cut off from the world. Vietnam used to be like that, but we opened up, and life here is much better.”
More Than a Million Cubans Facing Shortage of Drinking Water
Official figures reported by Cuban authorities indicate that more than a million Cubans lack regular access to drinking water due to a breakdown in pumping equipment and drought. Antonio Rodríguez, president of Cuba’s National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, indicated that 248,000 people in Havana do not have access to a regular supply of water. In the eastern provinces of Cuba, a low level of dams and the lack of rain have adversely impacted the water access of about 860,000 people. Rodríguez acknowledged in the official newspaper Granma that the “water supply in the country is going through a critical situation.”
Dozens of Cubans in Centro Habana participated in a demonstration on August 19 to demand that the government take action to address the water shortage. The issue of water shortages in Havana has persisted for several years, and Cuban individuals have previously engaged in protest to call for better conditions.
Recommended Reading, Viewing, Events:
Read | Novel: False War by Carlos Manuel Álvarez
Read | El País: Surviving in the most unequal Cuba
Read | The Economist: The new fears of Cubans in Florida
Read | Rialta: Cuban Painter Humberto Calzada dies
Read | Bloomberg: Trump-loathing billionaire teams with archbishop to fight deportations
Watch | Belly of the Beast: Inside the U.S. Deportation Flights to Cuba
Watch | University of Miami Libraries: Mid-Century Architecture and Culture in South Florida and the Caribbean
Attend | University of Miami Libraries: Seminar in Cuban and Cuban Diaspora Studies
