US authorities told Radio Televisión Martí that the permanence in the US of the Cuban pilot who landed in Florida on Friday in a Cuban fumigation plane will be determined by current laws.
The service of the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) informed our newsroom that will follow existing policies to determine the admissibility and immigration status of the Cuban citizen.
In addition, he indicated that experts from the CBP Air and Marine Operations Center and the Department of Homeland Security they are investigating the trip.
The CBP statement mentioned that their privacy laws prevent them from disclosing any additional information about the Cuban citizen.
In an email received hours after the incident, authorities confirmed some details: “United States Customs and Border Protection officers responded to a private plane arriving from Cuba at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Florida around 11:30 am” on Friday.
The information ensures that the only passenger was a 29-year-old Cuban piloting the Antonov AN-2 aircraft.
A team from Radio Televisión Martí verified the plane at the Florida airport, with the initials ENSA and license plate CU-A1885.
The aviator was initially identified by the CiberCuba publication as Ruben Martinezpilot of the Cuban Air Services Company (ENSA). The Cuban topics portal assured that his relatives on the island (his mother and sisters) they were being interrogated in the city of Santa Clara.
The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) referred to the incident as “a kidnapping carried out by the pilot Ruben Martinez Machado“.
Independent journalist Yoel Espinosa Medrano told Radio Televisión Martí on Friday that when he heard the news he went to the pilot’s home, located on Calle Prolongación de Marta Abreu, in Santa Clara.
“I was received by a young woman, who said she was her sister. I asked her about the news that was happening and what was on the networks and she told me that she was in shock, both her mother and her, and that they never expected her brother leave the country that way,” said Espinosa Medrano.