Havana .- The Spanish citizen Martiño Ramos Soto, arrested in Cuba after escaping to avoid serving a 13 and a half year prison sentence for raping a minor, was finally extradited back to Spain this Wednesday.
Sources close to the process informed EFE that Ramos Soto boarded a plane this afternoon bound for Madrid after having voluntarily accepted his transfer to Spain to serve his prison sentence.
This 50-year-old professor and well-known political activist was arrested in Havana last November, in compliance with a request from the Provincial Court of Ourense and following a process of collaboration between both countries.
The professor extradited from Cuba to Spain
Ramos Soto was, at the time of his arrest, one of the ten names wanted by the Spanish justice system, whose location and arrest were a priority for the Fugitives Section, which had recently requested citizen collaboration to gather possible leads.
According to the reconstruction of his months on the island that EFE was able to carry out, the fugitive posed in Havana as a photographer, called himself Martín Soto and tried to integrate into the cultural scene of the Cuban capital.
He maintained activity on social accounts without great secrecy and, according to several testimonies, used the excuse of photography to get in touch with young women. In Cuba, there is no record of any complaints against him.
Integrantes de la Policía de Cuba en una calle de La Habana (Cuba). EFE/ Ernesto Mastrascusa
The Revolutionary National Police (PNR) of Cuba seemed to be aware of the rapist’s entry into the country and was keeping a watch on him, but did not proceed to arrest him immediately.
According to the Fugitives Section of the National Police, Ramos Soto is from Ourense, is 50 years old, and was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for sexual abuse of a minor student, through sadistic practices, when the victim was between 12 and 16 years old.
Once he was sentenced in July 2025, Ramos Soto did not attend the prison entry order to serve the sentence. Then a national arrest warrant was issued, although the agents already had indications that the convicted person was outside of Spain.
According to the police reconstruction of his escape, Ramos Soto traveled to Portugal in July to fly to Brazil from Lisbon. From there he traveled to Peru and then, finally, to Cuba. The Spanish police considered that the convicted man had some support on the island.
In addition to being a primary and infant education teacher, Ramos Soto is a former member of the defunct En Marea and known in his city, Ourense, for teaching music and for his activism.
Their inclusion on the list along with ten other fugitives – there are known drug traffickers, a murderer, a historic robber and several sex offenders – is due, according to the Fugitives Section, to a “strategic” issue.
