Man released after being questioned in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance says experience was ‘terrifying’
The FBI updated their missing person poster for Nancy Guthrie, Feb. 10, 2026. (FBI)
(PHOENIX, Ariz.) — The man who was detained and released after being questioned in connection with the abduction of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, says it was “terrifying.”
The man, who said he works in Tucson and delivers packages for a living, said he was detained in a traffic stop in Rio Rico, according to ABC Phoenix affiliate station KNXV, which spoke to him after his encounter with law enforcement.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday they had detained a “subject” in connection with the investigation.
When asked about what happened, the man who spoke with KNXV said it was a “terrifying” experience and that authorities “didn’t tell me anything at the beginning.”
When asked if he delivered a package to Nancy Guthrie’s home, the man said, “I don’t know. Might have been a possibility. I don’t know.”
“I was detained the whole time,” he told KNXV. “I was being questioned, but they only asked me for my first name, my last name, my date of birth and my social.”
The man whom officials detained had been on the radar of the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department regarding Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance prior to the public release on Tuesday of the images of a masked subject at Nancy Guthrie’s front door, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The individual, who identified himself as Carlos, was detained for questioning in Rio Rico after the FBI identified him using a series of electronic investigative tools, including cellphone usage information and traffic data, the sources said, without specifying the exact techniques.
A local judge from Santa Cruz County, Arizona, signed the warrant for the search of the man’s house, which was carried out overnight. He was questioned for several hours before being released without charge and is under no law enforcement restrictions, according to the sources.
Separately, investigators are studying every pixel of the new video the FBI released publicly on Tuesday to try to find any identifying feature, including the apparent weapon and characteristics of what the subject was wearing, according to the sources.
“In high-profile cases, these type of leads are typical,” retired FBI agent Brad Garrett told Good Morning AmericaWednesday. “It may happen again because it’s the type of tips you get. But having said that, it’s the type of tips that will resolve this case.”
Investigators also descended upon a home where a court-authorized search was conducted and a woman claiming to be the homeowner says someone called in a tip reporting Nancy Guthrie was there.
“You can go in and search my house. There’s nobody there. I have nothing to hide,” the woman told KNXV. “There’s nobody in my house and I don’t know what’s going on.”
She told reporters her son-in-law was the person detained by police but insisted he had nothing to do with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
The developments followed the first images released of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.
The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.
Savannah Guthrie later posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
Mountains outside Patterson, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PATTERSON, Calif.) — The attorney of a man who was shot in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting in Patterson, California, is claiming ICE attempted to arrest his client based on wrong information.
The shooting occurred on Tuesday near the I-5, when ICE Director Todd Lyons said federal officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.
Lyons claimed that the suspect, later identified as Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
Attorney Patrick Kolasinski said during a press conference Wednesday that he has obtained a document from the government of El Salvador that he claims proves Mendoza Hernandez was once arrested and accused of murder but was acquitted.
Kolasinski shared with reporters what appears to be a judicial document from El Salvador that says Mendoza Hernandez was acquitted of homicide in 2019.
ABC News has reached out to DHS for comment about Kolasinski’s claims. ABC News has not independently verified the authenticity of the document.
Kolasinski said Mendoza Hernandez’s family in El Salvador says he was never in a gang. The attorney also said his client has no criminal record in the United States except for a traffic ticket.
Following the shooting, Mendoza Hernandez was taken to a local hospital, according to DHS.
Kolasinski said law enforcement officials and hospital staff have not allowed him and Mendoza Hernandez’s fiancée to speak with him since the shooting.
A hospital social worker could only share that he’s in stable condition, but would not answer any other questions, they claimed during the press conference.
(WASHINGTON) — Across three hours of oral arguments on Friday, a panel of judges appeared skeptical of a legal challenge to the 10% global tariff imposed by President Donald Trump after the Supreme Court struck down his first round of tariffs earlier this year.
The lengthy hearing centered on whether a 1974 law gives President Trump the power to impose the tariffs for 150 days without approval from Congress, based on the United States’ trade deficit.
The suit was brought by 24 states as well as the toy company behind Care Bears and Lincoln Logs, and a spice importer.
Brian Marshall, arguing for the plaintiffs, told the panel of three judges on the Court of International Trade that the Trump administration is misusing the law that allowed tariffs to account for a “balance of payments deficit” — which he said experts unanimously believe is distinct from a “trade deficit.”
Judge Timothy C. Stanceu repeatedly pushed back on that claim, remarking that a “balance of payments deficit” could be created by a trade imbalance.
“In other words, a fundamental international payments problem cannot be something where the United States has to pay out a lot of money. It can also be something where there is an imbalance created by large trade surpluses in which case they wanted to let more imports in,” Judge Stanceu said.
The judges also appeared skeptical that the states suing the Trump administration had the legal standing to bring the case, though they appeared more receptive to the two small businesses that also challenged the tariffs: Basic Fun, a toy company, and Burlap and Barrel, which sells single-origin kitchen spices.
“I think there’s a distinction, for example, between some of the private party plaintiffs where they said, ‘We know we have X number of containers that are coming in within a certain period of time.’ I’m not sure that I see the same degree of clarity with regard to the state plaintiffs other than we buy stuff,” said Chief Judge Mark A. Barnett.
However, the judges also appeared to push back on some of the arguments from the Trump administration, including the claim that earlier litigation related to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which the Supreme Court concluded does not give the president the right to impose tariffs — suggested that the 1974 law now in question gives Trump that power.
“This case has nothing like that. This case has a statute that expressly allows the imposition of tariffs or quotas. So we’re in a whole different universe now,” said Stanceu. “This one turns on balance of payments deficits, a term that was not involved in the IEEPA case.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate urged the court to affirm that the 1970s law gives Trump temporary tariff power, arguing Congress was clear in giving presidents broad latitude to address the deficits in question.
“The fundamental problem that exists today also existed in 1971, and that was the problem that Congress was trying to give presidents beyond President Nixon, the discretion to address by identifying balance of payments problems,” Shumate said.
The court did not signal when or how they might rule, though a decision is expected sometime in the coming months. Regardless of the ruling, tariffs are set to expire in July when the 150-day window expires.
According to the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, Trump’s tariffs — including the broad Section 122 tariffs, as well as metal and pharmaceutical tariffs imposed under different authorities — are estimated to cost every household between $760 and $940 if the Section 122 tariffs expire within 150 days. If Congress were to extend the tariffs, the price impact could be between $1,200 and $1,500 for each household.
U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he departs the White House on March 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — For more than 60 years, hundreds of thousands of Cuban health care workers have been deployed across the globe.
Under the government’s medical missions program, doctors, nurses, technicians and other staff are sent to countries around the world to provide care to underserved communities, in many cases for a fee.
The Cuban government has said the missions, or “medical brigades,” have entered countries at war, hit by natural disasters and ravaged by outbreaks of disease, saving thousands of lives.
Critics, including the Trump administration, have held a different view, claiming that the health professionals are coerced into volunteering, partly as a way to bring in much-needed currency, and that their movements are restricted. The U.S. State Department has referred to the missions as “forced labor” and has pressured countries to stop accepting Cuban medical workers.
“The Trump administration, Biden administration and U.N. have all understood that these medical mission programs are a forced labor scheme that exploit Cuban workers,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to ABC News. “These labor export programs abuse the participants, enrich the corrupt Cuban regime and deprive everyday Cubans of essential medical care that they desperately need in their homeland.
Kelly noted President Donald Trump believes “Cuba is a disaster that’s in its last moments of life, and these programs are one of many ways that they repress their own people.”
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not return multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
A White House official told ABC News there is vast opposition to the Cuban medical missions program across political parties, in both chambers of Congress and from international organizations.
The humans rights organization Prisoners Defenders said in 2020 that it submitted a report to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court claiming it has evidence of “a pattern of slavery” on the medical missions.
Countries including the Bahamas, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Paraguay have begun phasing out the missions, reviewing medical cooperation agreements or canceling contracts with the Cuban government.
Some international relations experts told ABC News that there is some truth to the allegations that Cuban medical workers are often closely monitored by Cuba’s government, but that the medics are also providing care to communities that would otherwise not receive it.
History of the program
After the Cuban Revolution began in 1959, many doctors left Cuba for the U.S. Newly installed leader Fidel Castro saw an opportunity to set up programs to train doctors not just for Cuba but to be sent overseas as a type of medical diplomacy, according to John Kirk, a professor emeritus of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University In Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has written several books on Cuba.
The first medical mission was a small team of doctors sent to Chile, which experienced the strongest earthquake ever recorded in 1960. The first medical brigade was sent to Algeria in May 1963. In the 1970s, medical missions expanded greatly to Latin America and Africa.
Some countries, like Gambia or Haiti — which are poorer — pay Cuba nothing for medical care, according to Kirk. However, richer countries such as Qatar pay the Cuban government a monthly fee, about 25% of which is given to the Cuban medical workers themselves, he noted. Qatar pays Cuba about $9,000 to $10,000 a month for these services, Kirk said.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment on how much countries pay Cuba for the service of medical workers.
Between 1960 and 2023, 600,000 doctors, nurses and technicians participated in this program in 165 different countries, according to the Cuban government.
As of 2024, Cuba had 54 brigades with more than 22,600 medical workers, according to Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba’s communist party.
Philip Brenner, a professor emeritus in the School of International Service at American University, with expertise in U.S.-Cuba relations, said one example of Cuba’s program was Operación Milagro in Venezuela, launched in 2004, to provide ophthalmology services.
“More than 1 million people regained eyesight, and it wasn’t a major operation,” Brenner told ABC News. “These were like cataracts that people had, but they had no access to medical care until the Cuban doctors came in. They served an enormous number of people around the world.”
Criticism of the program
The U.S. government has long been critical of the Cuban medical missions program, claiming health care professionals are forced into it and sending workers overseas deprives Cubans of the medical care they need at home.
In August, the State Department revoked visas and imposed visa restrictions on several Brazilian government officials, former Pan American Health Organization officials and their family members due to “complicity” with the Cuba’s “labor export scheme.”
“These officials were responsible for or involved in abetting the Cuban regime’s coercive labor export scheme, which exploits Cuban medical workers through forced labor,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Brazil’s government did not respond to the allegations but Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva revoked the visa of a U.S diplomat who sought to visit former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula said the measure was reciprocal for the U.S. revoking visas in August, according to the Associated Press.
The Cuban government did not reply to ABC News’ requests for comment on these claims.
Kirk, the Dalhousie professor emeritus, said of the 270 Cuban medical professionals that he interviewed, most said they volunteered and were not forced to partake in these missions, but he acknowledged it doesn’t mean they weren’t forced.
Sebastián Arcos, interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said no one is physically forced to participate in these missions, but the conditions in Cuba push many to work in the program to try and earn some money to support their families.
“The other [thing] is, once you participate, once you volunteer for one of these missions, you earn credits with the Cuban regime,” he told ABC News. “Any kind of acknowledgement or respect that you can get from the Cuban government will help your career.”
Arcos said he is familiar with the experiences of those on missions because his wife’s sister, Karem Montiel, was part of a Cuban medical brigade in Eritrea, Africa.
Montiel told ABC News she used to teach embryology at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana and was selected to join a medical brigade in 2010 to teach at Eritrea’s Orotta School of Medicine.
She said she had a good relationship with her students, but criticized the Cuban government’s involvment in the program .
“That is nothing else but slavery, 21st century slavery,” she said. “I was the one doing the work but [the Cuban government is] the one who gets the money. … They own all the Cuban doctors. They make the money, they get paid for those doctors being there, working, and they pay the doctors the bare minimum.”
Montiel said that working as a doctor in Cuba, she was paid the equivalent of $23 per month. She said she was paid more to go on a medical mission but the salary is deposited in a bank account in Cuba, which doctors cannot access until they return to the country.
According to Montiel, the chief of the medical brigade holds on to everybody’s passports. She added that the chief of her mission also accompanied all staff to any immigration appointments they had.
According to Montiel, there are two reasons doctors go on the medical missions: either to get more money and buy things they are unable to buy in Cuba — like computers or TVs — or to attempt to escape Cuba.
Montiel did the latter and left her medical mission early, defecting to the U.S. in December 2010.
“Nobody goes [on medical missions] for the humanitarian reasons to help out the people in need, or the poor people who do not have access to health care,” she said.
She now works as a nurse practitioner in Miami, and her husband and two children have since joined her.
Arcos is also skeptical that the Cuban government is performing the medical missions for purely humanitarian purposes.
“The Cuban government is not really trying to help other people who are less fortunate,” he said. “This is a business for them. They are making money. They are gathering intelligence. They are influencing other governments, and all of this is done on the backs of hardworking people.”
Why is the US ramping up pressure?
For the last several months, the Trump administration has been increasing pressure on governments that receive Cuban medical personnel.
The federal government warned that it could impose sanctions against governments that accept the health workers. The administration said that the program is “exploitative,” with workers forcibly separated from their families, subjected to surveillance, given little pay and under threat if they don’t return to Cuba.
Several countries have recently pulled out of agreements and some that haven’t said the U.S. is pushing them to do so.
During the Second World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in January, Prime Minister Philip Pierre of Saint Lucia said he’s faced pressure from the U.S. government over not having the Caribbean island’s medical students be trained in Cuba.
“We also have Cubans who come over to work. So, the American government has said we can’t even train them in Cuba. So, I have a major issue on my hand,” Pierre said, according to local reports.
In a statement on Facebook last month, the U.S. Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the inter-governmental Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States denied speaking with Saint Lucia’s government about international education.
“The United States continues to call for an end to exploitation and forced labor in the illegitimate Cuban regime’s overseas medical missions program,” the embassy wrote.
Kirk and Brenner say the U.S. has signaled in the past that it is looking for a regime change in Cuba and placing a stranglehold on the economy may help achieve that objective.
Both said they believe that stranglehold can be maintained through the energy blockade, which has been in place since January, and by cutting a major source of income for Cuba: the medical missions program.
“Because Cuba does earn hard currency from some of the doctors being sent abroad, one of the ways in which the United States has tried to strangle the Cuban economy is by getting countries to end their medical programs with Cuba,” Brenner said. “Even though those medical programs have benefited the people in those countries, the goal has been very narrow: one of trying to hurt Cuba. And it’s been very effective; it’s one of the ways in which Cuba has lost hard currency.”
What will happen to counties that pull out?
For countries that pulled out of Cuba’s program, the experts said they expect to see worsening health conditions.
“We’d have to expect to see more chronic disease and more people dying from disease that otherwise they wouldn’t die from because of the lack of help from Cuba,” Brenner, from American University’s School of International Service, said.
“The United States had previously provided some assistance to these countries through USAID but, under [the Department of Government Efficiency], USAID was essentially destroyed, and the medical programs that the United States had haven’t been resumed,” Brenner said.
Not all counties are pulling out of agreements, however. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that she will keep an agreement with Cuba’s government and continue to have Cuban doctors working in Mexico.
Kirk noted that Mexico currently has about 3,000 Cuban medics in the county. He added that if Mexico does pull out of its agreement with Cuba, it will be “a major blow, symbolically, politically and financially.”
