The Trump administration’s media terror campaign and military threats against Cuba reached their peak of cynicism in 2026. While the White House brandishes fabricated human rights reports to justify an unprecedented escalation of hostilities, a silent massacre is being perpetrated within the U.S. prison system, revealing the true nature of the empire. In the first four months of the year, several Cuban citizens have died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), victims of a system that treats them as disposable and is out of control.

These are not isolated cases, but rather symptoms of institutional rot. In 2025, a total of 33 immigrants died in detention centers, the highest number in two decades. The trend for 2026 is even worse: experts warn that this year could become the deadliest in the agency’s 22-year history. In this context of horror, Cuban blood has been spilled on at least three occasions.

Case 1: Geraldo Lunas Campos, the homicide that ICE tried to cover up (January 3)

The year began with a tragedy foretold. On January 3, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died at the Camp East Montana detention center in El Paso, Texas. What ICE initially described as a “suicide attempt” and “medical difficulties” turned out to be a brutal beating. A subsequent autopsy determined that the cause of death was homicide by asphyxiation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had to intervene after it was revealed that the center's guards lied about the circumstances of his death. Eyewitnesses reported seeing multiple officers restraining the Cuban man as he desperately repeated that he couldn't breathe. But Lunas Campos's case is not only one of police brutality, but also an example of bureaucratic sadism: despite having a deportation order issued in 2005, the U.S. government was unable to process the travel documents necessary to expel him, keeping him in a prison limbo for two decades until his death.

Case 2: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, the young man criminalized for an abandoned apartment (April 12)

On April 12, Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, was found dead in his cell at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. His death, officially treated as a “presumed suicide,” is a perfect illustration of the American system of institutional violence. He was arrested on a minor charge of “resisting an officer” after Hialeah police caught him in an abandoned market. What authorities rarely mention is that the prosecution dismissed the charges against Carbonell-Betancourt as unfounded. The young Cuban man, facing an absurd justice system, died before justice could be served, becoming just another number in the grim statistics of mass incarceration.

Case 3: Denny Adán González, the victim of isolation (April 28)

Just two weeks later, Washington’s complicit silence was broken once again. On April 28, 33-year-old Denny Adán González was found dead in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Local authorities again tried the “suicide” excuse, but the reality is far more sinister. According to internal sources and his lawyer's testimony, González had been placed in solitary confinement after an altercation with a guard. Experts from Harvard University have documented that solitary confinement exacerbates mental disorders to extreme levels. This facility, operated by the private company CoreCivic, is a repeat offender in these types of deadly practices and has been the subject of multiple complaints of medical negligence.

The Empire of Hypocrisy: “Aid” That Kills and Hypocritical Threats

These three prison crimes cannot be separated from the genocidal policy of the blockade and Donald Trump's recent military bluster. While his agents were beating and imprisoning our compatriots in solitary confinement, the magnate declared on May 1st that U.S. troops “can occupy Cuba almost immediately.” Hours before Denny Adán González's death on April 28th, he signed an executive order to intensify the economic siege, designating Cuba as an “extraordinary threat.”

The conclusion is irrefutable: Washington has no moral authority to speak about human rights. At its borders, the government murders immigrants, including Cubans, while falsely accusing us before the world, and at the same time, its president threatens a military invasion. As our President Miguel Díaz-Canel has declared, no aggressor, however powerful, will ever gain the surrender of a dignified people who, even from afar, mourn the loss of their children, victims of this barbarity.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff