The Struggles of a Cuban Mother in the U.S. After Sending Her Son to Cuba: "This Is Now a Legal Battle"

A Cuban woman, who has lived in the United States since 2016, recently turned to TikTok to share her harrowing experience of trying to arrange a vacation for her 13-year-old son in Cuba. The nearly ten-minute video shows her visibly emotional, with tears in her eyes, and has sparked significant responses from the Cuban community abroad.

Dreisys Lianet Reyes posted her story on Saturday, July 25, highlighting how a seemingly simple trip turned into a complicated ordeal involving parental authority struggles, disrespect, and decisions made without her consent.

The Unexpected Challenges of a Family Trip

Dreisys recounts that the boy's father—her former partner, from whom she separated when their son was just eight months old—never fulfilled his parental responsibilities. "He never sent child support, never took him... basically all he wanted was psychological warfare with me," she states in the video. Despite this history, she planned and financed the entire trip: hiring an escort stewardess for over $300 and purchasing an additional ticket for her current husband to accompany the boy to Cuba for added safety.

Parental Disputes and Unforeseen Conflicts

The situation erupted when Dreisys called the father to organize logistics and requested that he, upon picking up the child at the airport, also drive them to Las Tunas, where the young boy wished to visit his cousin. The father refused, citing high gas prices and insinuating that Dreisys, having been away for years, was unaware of Cuba's current state.

Offering to cover the fuel costs or suggesting he could collect the boy the following day, Dreisys was met with a hostile reaction. "My son wants to go to Cuba, I’m paying for everything, I’m not asking you for a dime, I’m paying for it all," she recounts telling him in the video.

A Deeper Betrayal: Trust Issues at Home

What hurt her most, however, was not the father's refusal but her current husband's actions. Without consulting her, and against their prior agreements, he allowed the father to take the child to his home—something Dreisys had explicitly forbidden. "I made it clear that my son was to stay at a specific house in Cuba, but he wasn't to be taken away due to past disrespect," she explains.

Throughout the video, Dreisys emphasizes that "from 2016 to the present," she has single-handedly cared for her son and has "never spoken ill" of his father. She poses a direct question to viewers: "I want you to tell me if I'm the crazy one here."

Broader Implications for Cuban Families

This case highlights a common issue among the Cuban diaspora: families split by migration, where one parent resides in the U.S. while the other remains on the island, leading to custody disputes compounded by the lack of bilateral agreements between the two countries regarding child abduction. Many Cuban mothers abroad have shared similar stories about the emotional and legal challenges of sending their children to Cuba for vacations.

In Cuba, the legal framework requires notarized consent from both parents for a minor to leave the country, as outlined by Instruction 279 of the Supreme People's Court. In practice, this requirement has been exploited as leverage in disputes between separated parents.

Dreisys concluded her video with a declaration reflecting her emotional state: "This is now a legal battle, and I may take a flight to Cuba in a couple of days, come what may, because I'm not backing down."