U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently deported Cuban Interior Ministry official Daniel Morejón García who had participated in the brutal repression of the peaceful July 2021 anti-communist protests in Cuba, Martí Noticias reported on Wednesday.
Morejón García is a member of the Cuban Communist Party who served as head of the National Defense Council in the province of Artemisa and was part of the regime’s rapid response brigades — groups of trained civilians who harass and brutally repress Cuban dissidents in the country. Morejón García was reportedly arrested by ICE in April after an investigation determined that he lied to U.S. authorities by failing to disclose his communist past.
“Daniel Morejón García is an illegal alien from Cuba who did not disclose his affiliation with the Interior Ministry or his participation in the repression of the Cuban people during the 11J protests,” an ICE spokesperson told Martí Noticias on Wednesday, confirming that he was deported back to Cuba in late May.
The nongovernmental organization Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), which maintains a public list of known Castro regime repressors, further detailed that Morejón García was as a former director of a state-owned animal feed factory in Las Cañas, Artemisa, and a Cuban state security collaborator or officer involved in the brutal repression and unjust conviction of at least three Cuban men who participated in 2021 protests. Those protests attracted thousands of people nationwide, flooding the streets of Cuba’s major cities to demand an end to over six decades of communist rule.
Videos published on social media on July 11, 2021, and cited by the organization, show Morejón García getting off a bicycle in Artemisa and assaulting a Cuban man identified as Armando Martínez Luis, who peacefully protested and called for Cuba’s freedom. FHRC detailed that Martínez Luis was unjustly convicted to eight years in prison for defending himself.
The organization also holds Morejón García responsible for the unjust arrest and conviction of Rolando González Arévalo and Richael Cantún Morales, two men sentenced on the same day as Martínez Luis. Before he was arrested, members of the Cuban diaspora denounced to FHRC and on social media that Morejón García moved to Miami, Florida, and resided at the home of his daughter Dhayma Morejón.
FHRC member Luis Domínguez described Morejón García’s arrest and deportation as an “act of justice” and said he was impressed that ICE arrested and deported the Cuban repressor in just one month.
“Those serving long sentences in Cuba for demanding freedom will feel at least a shred of justice knowing that this oppressor is no longer on U.S. soil,” Domínguez told Martí Noticias.
FHRC explained to Martí Noticias that the organization has received new complaints following Morejón García’s return to Cuba. Testimonies from residents of Las Cañas indicate that the Cuban official has intimidated those who collaborated in the complaints that led to his deportation.
“We are told that he has threatened witnesses and that he is seen accompanied by an [Interior Ministry] agent. It is clear that he has resumed his ties with State Security,” Domínguez said.
Morejón García’s name appears on a list that Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) presented to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this year. The list contains the names and corresponding positions within the Castro regime of over 100 known Cuban repressors who entered the United States in recent years by taking advantage of the lax borders policies implemented during the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The administration of President Donald Trump has prioritized efforts to restore the hardline U.S. policies against the Cuban regime implemented during Trump’s first term and reverse generous concessions granted by the Biden administration to the ruling communists.
On June 30, President Trump signed a memorandum that imposed bans on any direct or indirect financial transaction by entities controlled by the Cuban military, which the Cuban regime largely relies on to fund its repressive apparatus. The new measures also include a strict ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba, another crucial source of income for the Castro regime.
President Trump also signed a proclamation imposing specific U.S. visa restrictions on Cuban nationals along with other countries, such as Venezuela, ruled by the socialist Maduro Regime, a key ally of Cuba.
Last week, on the fourth anniversary of the July 11 protests, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed visa restrictions on some of the Cuban regime’s top brass, including its figurehead “President” Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife, Lis Cuesta.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here
