In 2021, the film “Plantados“ — which shifts between the present day in Miami and the early decades of the Cuban Revolution — became a cultural phenomenon among exiles. The plot goes roughly like this: In the United States, Ramón, a former political prisoner, recognizes Mauricio, one of the guards who tortured and humiliated him in Castro’s prisons.

As we shall see, reality can be more complex than fiction. The experience of the character Ramón has been shared by other Cubans living in freedom who have encountered their former oppressors — individuals who managed to enter the United States thanks to lax vetting systems or migration surges like those seen during the Biden era.

However, the Trump administration is taking action on this issue.

Among the most notorious cases is that of Tomás Hernández, a former high-ranking official in Cuban foreign intelligence, who was detained in Miami in 2025 for concealing his ties to the Communist Party when obtaining residency.

Figures linked to the Castro regime’s inner circle — such as Alina Rosales Aguirreurreta, daughter of General Ulises Rosales del Toro, and Adys Lastres Morera, sister of the head of the military conglomerate GAESA — were also detained, and their permanent residency status was revoked.

Yet, the most recent case of a deported Cuban agent has sparked an intense debate within the exile community regarding the extent of the island’s intelligence infiltration and the significant danger it poses to this country.

In August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported Fernando Armando Valdés, 61, who was identified as having infiltrated anti-Castro organizations during the 1990s.

The man, a resident of Kendall who also held Guatemalan citizenship, was arrested at Miami International Airport during an operation involving agents from ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

ICE stated that the agency’s investigation determined Valdés had a mission to “infiltrate and report on Cuban exile and dissident communities in Latin America and the United States starting in the mid-1990s.”

It added that the man “gained the trust of the late anti-Castro dissident Luis Posada Carriles and remained close to other well-known Cuban and Cuban-American figures in South Florida until his arrest.”

Valdés managed to enter the inner circle of anti-Castro fighter Posada Carriles and became a trusted confidant until the latter’s death in 2018, even though several figures in the exile community were suspicious of him, according to accounts given to Martí Noticias following his deportation.

Opposition activist Orlando González recounted meeting the Cuban-Guatemalan in Panama during one of his trips to visit Posada Carriles while the latter was imprisoned following his 2000 arrest on allegations of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro.

González grew suspicious of Valdés because he easily obtained authorizations and access to Panamanian security officials — as he told the press — and because he possessed a business card linked to ventures in Cuba and Italy.

Meanwhile, Luis Domínguez, an investigator with the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, stated that others had shared similar suspicions with him. According to his account, Valdés frequently accompanied Posada Carriles.

According to recent press reports, some people even tried to warn the anti-Castro leader, but by then he had already developed a relationship of trust and affection with the Cuban-Guatemalan.

Valdés organized several celebrations at Posada Carriles’s home, including his 90th birthday party in February 2018.

Although Posada Carriles passed away before learning of the ICE investigations, the agency also noted that Valdés concealed his ties to the Castro regime when applying for permanent U.S. residency. This made him liable for deportation.

In light of this, Matthew Elliston, ICE’s Field Office Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in Miami, reiterated that individuals who “conceal ties to foreign intelligence services and exploit our immigration system pose a serious threat to the integrity of that system and to our national security.”

Authorities can find a valuable source of information within the Cuban-American community regarding which operatives and sympathizers of the socialist tyranny are present in the country. For years, members of the exile community have taken it upon themselves to document their presence in the United States — hidden, operating in the shadows, and awaiting who knows what orders from Havana.