Orlando Ernesto Pérez Núñez arrived in the US through CBP One on November 19 and lives in Kentucky
14ymedio, Havana, 10 January 2025 — The emigration of Cuban regime officials to the United States continues unabated. The most recent on the list is Orlando Ernesto Pérez Núñez, former president of the Movimiento Juvenil Martiano (MJM) [Martí Youth Movement], belonging to the Union of Young Communists (UJC). According to Martí Noticias, he arrived in the US through CBP One on November 19 and lives in Kentucky.
Pérez Núñez, who replaced Yusuam Palacios at the head of the MJM in January 2023, crossed the border from Mexico through El Paso, Texas, where he requested asylum, according to a note from the American media published this Friday.
According to an MJM official cited in the note, Pérez Núñez was no longer at the head of the organization, although his resignation from the post was not officially announced.
A year ago, in an interview with Cubadebate, the then official assured that one of his main tasks at the head of the movement was to “transmit the principles of the Cuban Revolution, and the vehicle to be effective is history.”
A year ago, in an interview with ’Cubadebate’, he said that one of his main tasks at the head of the movement was to “transmit the principles of the Cuban Revolution.”
“Another of the challenge,” he said, “is the transformation of this movement in today’s Cuba. To be able to bring it to the minds of young people, to make the José Martí Pioneers Organization a reality. The challenge is to transform the methodological documents and the processes that we develop as a movement and adapt them to the new generations.”
According to his statements, he planned to serve out his entire term, until 2028. “We want to see a strengthened, improved movement when we finish our five-year mandate, one that truly responds to the interests of today’s Cuba, of the new generations and of the UJC. That it assumes within the José Martí Cultural Society the care of children, adolescents and young people, as part of the system of institutions of the Office of the Martí Program,” he indicated. However, he did not even complete two years at the head of the organization.
Pérez Núñez did not respond to Martí Noticias’ request for comment and has deleted his social media profiles.
During 2024, more than 115 Cuban repressors and officials fled to the United States. The figure is five times higher than that reported in February 2023 by the Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, which runs a program to identify those who, having contributed to repression on the island, intend to settle in a democratic country.
Tony Costa, director of the organization, reported last August that they have “identified more than 1,000 Cuban regime repressors” living in the United States, many of whom entered “by lying.” Costa added that these former officials “have abused the immigration system to come to the United States.”
During 2024, more than 115 Cuban repressors and officials fled to the US. The figure is five times higher than that reported in February 2023
Members of the Communist Party, State Security agents, prosecutors and even judges are among the people who have recently arrived and who have been identified in the digital project Cuban Repressors.
One of the most representative cases is that of Judge Melody González Pedraza, who arrived at Tampa Airport in Florida on May 30 thanks to humanitarian parole. However, she was denied entry into the country there and decided to request political asylum. Since then, Judge González has been waiting in prison for a ruling to obtain refugee status.
The judge arrived in the United States a few days after having sentenced four young Cubans to three and four years in prison for throwing Molotov cocktails at property belonging to regime officials in November 2022 in Villa Clara. Two months later, from prison, González Pedraza tried to distance herself from the ruling in an interview with Diario de Cuba and said she had received instructions from the president of the Provincial Court and the president of the Security Chamber.
Another case was that of Rosabel Roca Sampedro, the former prosecutor responsible for sentences of up to four and a half years in prison for “attack and contempt” for four protesters from Camagüey during the Island-wide protests on 11 July 2021. Despite the alert launched by different organizations and the express request of three congressmen to the Department of Homeland Security to reject her request for asylum, she entered the United States on July 15. According to Martí Noticias, which had reported on the case in June, Roca Sampedro entered with a CBP One appointment at the border with Mexico in Brownsville, Texas.
Also on the list is Liván Fuentes Álvarez, president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power on the Isle of Youth between 2019 and 2022, who was denied entry by the United States immigration authorities last May after his humanitarian parole was revoked. On social media, he showed himself to be a staunch defender of the regime, as evidenced by official images alongside President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
One of the most high-profile cases of last year was that of Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, former first secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos, who was “coordinator of the Coordination and Support Team of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.” Last August, he managed to enter the United States. He arrived at Miami International Airport – seeking to go unnoticed – in a wheelchair, wearing a mask and a cap.
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