A Cuban man deported by the Trump administration to Eswatini has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention in the southern African nation, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Roberto Mosquera del Peral was among five foreign nationals deported from the United States to Eswatini in July. He has been held in a maximum-security prison with 10 others sent there in October as part of the administration’s expanded “third-country” deportation program targeting foreign offenders.
“My client is arbitrarily detained and now his life is on the line,” said Alma David, Mosquera’s U.S.-based attorney. She said he began his hunger strike on October 15 and has been denied access to legal counsel in Eswatini.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in June that Mosquera, 58, had been arrested in Miami and described his record as including convictions for homicide and aggravated assault on a police officer. His attorney disputes that, saying he was convicted of attempted murder, not homicide, and completed his prison sentence before deportation.
A spokesperson for Eswatini’s correctional services declined comment but confirmed the information was under review. A local lawyer representing the group is fighting for access to the detainees, which the Eswatini government has so far denied.
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