Exiles plan protest to demand that Cubans abroad be allowed to return to the island

Sarah Moreno, Miami Herald on Mar 17, 2026

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MIAMI — Several exile organizations announced Monday there will be a gathering in Miami on Saturday to demand the right of Cubans abroad to return to Cuba and for the U.S. government to allow them to take a boat from Miami carrying aid for dissidents on the island.

The meeting will take place the same day the convoy that has been named “Nuestra América” is expected to arrive in Cuba. That flotilla, made up of leftist organizations, intends to deliver more than 20 tons of food, medicine and solar power equipment to the island.

At a Monday press conference, a group of activists led by Ramón Saúl Sánchez, president of Movimiento Democracia, called for more support from President Donald Trump’s administration for Cubans inside the island.

Amid a deep humanitarian crisis and blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day, Cubans are taking to the streets to express their discontent with pot-banging protests and demanding freedom.

Early Saturday, protesters in the town of Morón, in Ciego de Ávila province, tried to set fire to the local Communist Party office while shouting “Down with communism!” A young man was wounded by a police gunshot.

“We are here to back the people of Cuba who are coming out in massive protests,” Sánchez said at a press conference at Lummus Park, along the Miami River.

The same park will host Saturday’s gathering, which aims to push the goal of returning to the island. Return has been particularly difficult for people whom the Cuban government bars from entry because of their civic activism in favor of Cuban citizens’ rights.

Sánchez has organized several flotillas in Miami that, arriving at waters off the coast of Cuba, sought to support the island’s residents, especially after the 1994 rafter exodus.

“We ask the administration to cut ties with the regime and connect with the people of Cuba, to support the demonstrations, restore internet access and warn the tyrants that if they repress the protesters they will feel the weight of the United States,” Sánchez said, adding his group had sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On March 13, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed talks between representatives of Cuba and the United States, which U.S. media outlets, including the Miami Herald, had been reporting for weeks.

Return to Cuba

In South Florida, the goal of returning has grown stronger for many Cubans who want to take part in helping rebuild the island.

“We believe the right to return is as important as the release of political prisoners if we are thinking about real change in Cuba,” activist Anamely Ramos, a historian and member of the Observatorio de Derechos Culturales, told el Nuevo Herald on Friday.

Activists Salomé García, who focuses on publicizing the plight of political prisoners in Cuba, and Norges Rodríguez, director of YucaByte, which covers censorship and violations of the right to information in Cuba, also demanded that right at the press conference.

“Cuba must be rebuilt, and that cannot be done by turning our backs on those of us who left,” said Ramos, who attempted to return to the island in 2022 but was prevented from doing so by the Cuban government.

The convoy to Havana

While many Cubans are barred from returning to their homeland, the Nuestra América convoy will set out from Mexico headed for Cuba. It has the support of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who took part in the Global Sumud flotilla that attempted to take aid to the Gaza Strip in October.

“If the Cuban regime is allowing foreigners to enter to bring humanitarian aid, it must allow Cubans in,” Ramos said, stressing that the groups aiming to bring aid to Cuba have peaceful, humanitarian goals.

Sánchez said he does not oppose foreign groups bringing aid to Cubans on the island, but he drew a distinction by asserting that Cubans are “hungry because of the father of Mariela Castro.”

Castro, daughter of former leader Raúl Castro, is the organizer of the convoy Nuestra América, Sánchez said. The flotilla will stop off the Havana Malecón seawall.

“We tell the people of Cuba: ‘Go to the Malecón,’ so that the aid sent by the people of Mexico can be handed to them directly,” Sánchez said. Mexican news outlets like Azteca Noticias reported last week that aid sent from Mexico was being sold in island stores that sell goods in dollars.

Sánchez invited boat owners in Miami to come to Lummus Park by the river this Saturday. There are no plans for a flotilla promoted by Movimiento Democracia to sail from Miami for now. They first need to obtain a temporary permit from the U.S. government that would allow travel to Cuba. A proclamation issued by the Clinton administration in 1996, after the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft by Cuban jet fighters, remains in effect and, as a security measure, restricts movement of U.S. boats to Cuba.

“Returning to one’s native land is a human right,” Rodríguez said. “If the sea and entry can be opened to foreigners, it must also be opened to Cubans.”