U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly detained Jorge Luis Vega García, allegedly one of the Cuban communist regime’s most feared torturers, Martí Noticias reported Tuesday.
Vega García was identified as a former lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) who oversaw the Agüica and Canaleta prisons, both located in the province of Matanzas. ICE confirmed to Martí Noticias that Vega García, known by his victims as “Veguita,” was detained on Tuesday morning. The alleged Cuban torturer “legally” entered the United States alongside his wife and son on January 20, 2024, using the now-defunct “Humanitarian Parole” program implemented by the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Several former political prisoners of the Castro regime identified Vega García to Martí Noticias, accusing him of orchestrating physical and psychological torture, beatings, prolonged confinement, and reprisals against Cubans during the 2003 “Black Spring” dissident crackdown.
In July, Martí Noticias reported that, despite his alleged past at the service of the Cuban communist regime, Vega García and his family obtained parole status and later filed a U.S. legal resident status request under the 1996 Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA). The CAA was passed specifically to benefit Cubans fleeing from communism and the Castro regime’s brutal persecution, granting lawful permanent resident status to Cubans who are physically present in the United States for at least one year.
Two sources with access to classified Cuban regime information told Martí under condition of anonymity that Vega García’s personal file had been “deleted” from the systems of Cuba’s Directorate of Identification, Immigration, and Foreigners. The sources claimed it was a “common practice used by the Castro regime to facilitate the discreet departure of trusted former officials from the country.”
Two documents obtained by Martí Noticias and reviewed by the outlet contain almost identical signatures attributed to Vega García. One of the documents, dated 2010, corresponds to the release of Cuban political prisoner Benito Ortega Suárez, while the other was allegedly signed by the Cuban official in the United States in 2024.
Several alleged victims recounted their harrowing experiences to Martí Noticias in July, including Ortega Suárez.
“He was trained by Emilio Cruz, the biggest hitman in Agüica prison,” the former political prisoner claimed. “He was cold, methodical, repressive. He commanded detachments of common prisoners to provoke us, steal our things, and lock us up for any reason.”
“There are faces that are tattooed on your soul. Veguita is one of them,” independent journalist Pablo Pacheco said, and detailed the case of a young man who, upon learning that he would be beaten by Vega García and Emilio Cruz, allegedly threw himself down the stairs from a third floor in the Agüica prison before facing the beating.
“Veguita was the second-in-command at the prison. They kept us in isolation, without seeing the sun for months. They took the political prisoners out for visits once every three months. That was pure torture,” the journalist added.
Cuban Captain Lainersy Ávila Castro, who formerly served as head of legal records at the Canaleta prison, confirmed to Martí Noticias that Vega Garcia worked at the Cuban prison system “for years” before he retired from the Interior Ministry. Ávila Castro further confirmed that Vega Garía had moved to the United States.
Martí Noticias reached out to Vega García over the phone at the time, who denied ever having worked in Cuba’s repressive prison system before abruptly hanging up the phone.
Jorge Luis Vega García’s name appears on a list of over 100 known Cuban repressors and human rights violators living in the United States that Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) presented to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March.
Last year, the nongovernmental organization Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) denounced that more than 115 members of the Castro regime availed themselves of the immigration policies implemented by the Biden administration to enter the United States from February 2023 onwards.
“Our efforts have not been in vain. Immigration agencies are taking into account the information we have provided them to investigate and capture the repressors and agents of the murderous regime in Cuba who have infiltrated the U.S.,” Rep. Giménez said on social media. “There are many of them, but we will not stop.”
Martí Noticias stated that although U.S. officials have not publicly disclosed what Vega García was arrested for, Cuban diaspora organizations and victims of the communist regime have called for a serious investigation and a fair trial for the crimes attributed to him.
“This cannot be resolved with simple deportation. We demand justice,” Fidel Suárez, whose brutal beatings allegedly by Vega García left him with permanent physical injuries, told Martí Noticias.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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