Cuban Dissident Boris Betancourt Awaits Extradition from Panama Amid Cuban Drug Trafficking Alert on Interpol

Boris Betancourt, a Cuban dissident, is currently detained in Panama as he awaits extradition to Cuba. Betancourt himself has disclosed, in statements to CiberCuba, that he has been confined for 15 months in a maximum-security Panamanian prison, where he spends 23 out of 24 hours a day locked up, describing the conditions as being "like an animal."

Betancourt asserts that his imprisonment stems from a "fabricated case by Cuba" due to his opposition activities, particularly during the time of Oswaldo Payá, who died in 2012. Despite his activism alongside the leader of the Varela Project, Betancourt has struggled to reach his daughter, Rosa María Payá. "I'm trying to locate Rosa Payá, but she cannot be found," he told CiberCuba. His lawyer, Lázara Gutiérrez Fernández, has also attempted to contact her "by all possible means but has received no response."

Boris Betancourt was initially arrested in Panama for drug consumption. He claims he entered the country seeking asylum. "I went through Medalla Milagrosa in Chiriquí, run by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, but they were full and directed me to the Norwegian Refugee Council of UNHCR. Two days later, the Panamanian police raided the apartment where I was staying," he explained.

According to Betancourt, the police justified their action by claiming they were attracted by the "smell of marijuana," though he insists "that is a lie." The night before his arrest, his grandparents called to inform him that an agent named Valentino from the Cuban Political Police had visited their family home and told them that the State Security knew his whereabouts.

Betancourt's written testimony to CiberCuba reveals that during the police search in Panama, they found a few grams of marijuana for personal use, which he says he purchased to calm his anxiety. His defense clarifies that the sentence states he was found with 0.48 grams of marijuana. "Boris is imprisoned in Panama because he is awaiting extradition to Cuba. He was detained in Panama for a different reason, but Cuba had already requested his arrest through Interpol," his lawyer, Lázara Gutiérrez Fernández, added.

Legal Challenges and the Fight for Asylum

Betancourt has had a hearing to contest the Foreign Relations' resolution approving his extradition, but it was denied. His asylum request was also rejected, as the director of Onpar (the National Office for Refugee Affairs) and Foreign Relations claim that Cuba does not violate human rights and have promised not to impose the death penalty on him. "They don't care about appeasing anyone," his lawyer insists.

The defense's strategy has focused on the violation of Betancourt's rights, as he is a leader of an organization he founded years ago and has opposed the Cuban regime since he was 16, having been imprisoned multiple times in Cuba for this reason. "In Cuba, they do not accept dissidents," concludes lawyer Gutiérrez Fernández.

The Allegations of Drug Trafficking

Betancourt explained to this platform, "I use [drugs] at night to be able to sleep." The issue arose when Panamanian police discovered an Interpol red alert for drug trafficking against him, issued by the Cuban regime. This has led to accusations of drug trafficking and his pending extradition to Cuba, where he fears for his safety.

In Cuba, Betancourt has grandparents, an aunt, and a cousin, all of whom, he insists, have been under "constant surveillance and control since 2021" with their phones tapped. Betancourt learned this when he called his family after his arrest in Panama, and the next day, they were visited by the political police agent known as Valentino, who claimed to know the cost of Betancourt's legal fees in Panama. "I had told them about it over the phone," Betancourt states.

Betancourt describes how a surveillance officer living two houses away from his family in Cuba installed a video camera to monitor their home. "He is a traffic officer," Betancourt notes, denying any involvement with a purported international drug trafficking network. He claims he was set up when he met in Costa Rica with two individuals who were supposedly offering financial support for his political group, Camino a la Democracia Pacífica de Cuba.

"The dictatorship infiltrated two Cuban spies living in the United States," he says, although he does not identify them, placing one in Houston and the other in Miami. "They were infiltrated to provide me with a financial donation for my cause, but instead, they recorded and hacked my email. Another spy was infiltrated in Costa Rica, who was the secretary of the Cuban Embassy's consul," he wrote.

The alleged donation for his cause never materialized, despite Betancourt meeting with these supposed benefactors in Costa Rica. He claims they informed him they couldn't provide the money because their accounts had been hacked and they couldn't withdraw cash from their cards. They promised to do so upon arriving in the United States, but Betancourt insists, "they never did."

He showed these people "the logistics" of how he intended to use the donated funds. "I showed them emails with activists in Cuba. All of them were arrested, and they hacked my phone," he recounts.

From Panama, Betancourt wants his case to receive attention; he seeks justice and hopes to transcend the "hatred" he harbors for communists. His case has been covered by the Spanish outlet Cubainformación.tv, aligned with the Díaz-Canel regime, which claims that the police found 2 kilos of marijuana during their search of Betancourt's apartment. They also allege the regime has evidence of Betancourt smuggling drugs into Cuba using Panama and Costa Rica for these purported illegal activities. The dissident firmly denies these accusations.