Cuba: The Melody Case, Rule or Exception?
HAVANA TIMES – The recent deportation to Cuba of former judge Melody Gonzalez Pedraza puts on the table the issue of US authorities’ passivity regarding the records of people who apply for asylum.
Gonzalez, responsible for sentencing four young Cubans on political grounds and without evidence, is just one of many public figures who left to live in the United States and were welcomed with open arms despite their disgraceful conduct while living on the island.
Melody arrived in Cuba this Thursday, September 25, on the ninth deportation flight that US immigration authorities have sent to the island this year, according to several independent outlets. But unfortunately, her case is not common. Usually, these flights carry many migrants who are simply seeking prosperity—many of them even victims of the regime.
Not having the proper paperwork is the only requirement for deportation, when what should matter more than a piece of paper is a person’s conduct before and after stepping foot in the United States.
In Gonzalez’s case, she had been detained in Louisiana since her arrival in the US, because we are not talking here about just any ordinary citizen.
As recently as May 2024, the judge sentenced four young men—all under 30—to prison terms of three and four years for protesting against the Cuban regime during the historic July 11, 2021, nationwide demonstrations, in their case, in Calabazar de Sagua, in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara.
Less than a month later, on May 30, 2024, the official arrived on US soil as a beneficiary of former President Joe Biden’s Humanitarian Parole Program, although her request to enter the country was immediately denied—not because of her repressive record, but because of her membership in the Cuban Communist Party.
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) opened a file on her in its “List of White-Collar Repressors,” charging her with crimes of judicial malfeasance and political persecution, along with “countless violations” of human rights.
She then applied for political asylum, claiming she had been coerced by State Security. This allowed her to remain in the United States under legal conditions recognized by international law, and on July 31 of last year she filed an appeal.
Nevertheless, on May 21, 2025, an immigration judge ruled against her. She was given until June 20 to file a petition with the Board of Immigration Appeals, but she failed to exercise that right, which is why she ultimately was deported.
Her husband, William Hernandez Carrazana, had been deported earlier and is already living again in Encrucijada, Villa Clara.
In addition, her brother, Ruber Gonzalez Pedraza, is also facing deportation. He was one of the most aggressive “cyberclarias” (pro-regime online trolls) defending the Cuban government on social media, though he deleted his record after receiving humanitarian parole. He is now detained, and according to media reports has requested voluntary deportation. After seeing that spending thousands of dollars did nothing to save his sister, he realized it wasn’t worth trying. In his case, there is the added aggravating factor that he studied at the University of Information Sciences (UCI), where thousands of young people were trained to carry out cyberwarfare against journalists, activists, and political dissidents both inside and outside the island, as well as against exile media and organizations.
Their sponsor, cousin Roberto Castellon, not only backs them, but has also used social media to threaten activists who reported their cases, warning them about “karma” and arguing that the siblings were only doing their part in the Cuban regime’s chain of repression.
“Justice was done. She didn’t deserve to live in the United States after all the harm she caused in Cuba. She gave those kids four years, taking away my son’s chance of going to the US, because my son had been granted Humanitarian Parole. Yet she, such a revolutionary judge who unjustly imprisoned so many young people, was granted Parole and even received a release from [the Ministry of Justice],” said Dunia Rodriguez Milian, mother of Eddy Daniel Rodriguez, one of the four youths sentenced by Melody Gonzalez in the so-called Case 2 of 2024, speaking to Martí Noticias.
In reality, only partial justice was done, because she should have been tried for systematic abuse of human rights.
Official data indicates that about two million migrants have left the US since January, either by deportation order or voluntary self-deportation processes. In particular, 1,140 people have been deported to Cuba so far this year, 999 of them from the United States, but only 37 for political reasons—when it should be the other way around.
Much greater scrutiny must be applied to regime officials seeking to rebuild their lives in exile through humanitarian programs, because the victims of their human rights abuses deserve respect.
Impunity for human rights violators is a scourge that tears at the conscience of modern societies. The absence of justice fuels a cycle of violence, allowing perpetrators to walk free while those tortured physically or mentally remain in eternal silence.
In the name of stricter border control, everyone gets thrown into the same sack. But the memory of victims demands truth, justice, and accountability, and the signal must be far clearer: humanitarian programs cannot be used as an escape route for those who served the repressive Cuban apparatus.
Without real commitment to truth and reparation, a culture of fear and distrust is perpetuated, undermining the foundations of democracy and respect for human dignity. Breaking this unacceptable cycle is urgent.