Pérez-Oliva recalled that it is “a long-standing blockade, a cruel genocidal blockade ,” in effect since 1962. He acknowledged that, especially with the executive orders of January 29 and May 1, “foreign companies, which have worked in Cuba for many years, have been encouraged to withdraw totally or partially from business with our country . ”

He explained that this occurred "as a result of the creation of a climate of direct threat against many of these companies and direct coercive actions to force them to abandon their businesses in Cuba ," in addition to threats of sanctions against some of the sectors included in those orders.

“This has generated uncertainty and fear among many foreign companies about working, investing and developing businesses with Cuba,” he said.

He clarified that “the phenomenon is not massive, as is often portrayed in statements by US administration officials .” He admitted that “some companies have withdrawn from our country, primarily those well-known in the tourism sector.”

The energy blockade

Regarding fuel, the deputy prime minister noted that with the energy embargo established by Executive Order 14380 of January 29, and later reinforced by 14404, “a naval blockade has been imposed on Cuba in terms of fuel, practically de facto .” As a consequence, traditional suppliers, who provided the country “under lawful conditions, complying with the rules of international trade and through legitimate operations,” ceased to do so.

Added to this is the fear among shipping lines and shipowners, because even when there is a supplier willing to trade, "they cannot find a vessel willing to touch the Cuban coasts and bring fuel . "

According to his complaint, the U.S. administration has arbitrarily authorized, “in a restrictive and, I would say, illicit and irregular manner,” certain American companies to sell fuel to Cuba. “But this isn’t about selling fuel as it’s done to any other country in the world, complying with trade regulations,” he clarified. He explained that the product cannot arrive in full shipments, but rather through supply mechanisms that are “highly costly, inefficient, and directly burden the Cuban economy . ”

“Simply put, a country like Cuba, due to its size, cannot function properly with a fuel supply based on ISO containers, which is what is happening today,” he stated.

He explained that they are receiving “very limited quantities of fuel in ISO containers at high prices ,” both because of the way it is acquired and because, being a scarce product that Cuba “is practically prohibited from acquiring,” companies “also take advantage of these opportunities and prices tend to rise.” This is compounded by the situation in the international fuel market due to what is happening in the Middle East.

Direct and selective threats

When asked about the departure from the country of tourism sector companies such as Meliá and Iberostar, he responded that “they have been forced to leave the country due to threats and direct coercion from the US administration .” He affirmed that Cuba has “full knowledge of the direct threats” that these companies and their top executives received from the State Department, “which has urged them, even giving them deadlines, to withdraw from Cuba.”

“This situation exists, it is real and it is known,” he acknowledged, but warned that in statements and in the press “it is often magnified, because I can assure you that there is no stampede of foreign investors or companies leaving Cuba .”

He added that many companies, based on these threats, “have even been selected on a case-by-case basis, with specific sectors targeted .” “Threats have been made to sectors that operate within the Cuban economy where we generate foreign income that allows us to keep our economy functioning,” he specified. He added that, along with this selective action, the way the executive orders are designed “generally instills fear and uncertainty and, in some cases, exerts coercion to force companies to withdraw from Cuba.”

“Cuba will not become a colony again”

When asked whether the Cuban government was concerned about a return to an era of colonialism or economic dependence on the United States, he replied: “Cuba will never again be a colony of any country. Cuba achieved its independence, its sovereignty, and its self-determination. And that scenario will not return.”

He acknowledged that, without the embargo, “trade relations with the United States would have a significant impact on our commerce, our overall economy, and investments, because the United States and Cuba are close countries.” He added that “there is a natural market in the United States for many Cuban products” and that “many Americans want to travel to Cuba as tourists, enjoy our beaches, our nature, our history, and our culture, and they are precisely prohibited from doing so by the embargo.” Many companies from that country, he said, “would undoubtedly like to work, invest, and do business with Cuba, as we have been able to confirm in our exchanges with numerous businesspeople.”

However, all of this is happening today “in a restrictive environment due to the very existence of the embargo.” US companies that have dealings with Cuba “must operate under specific licenses that authorize them and establish a limited scope for their ties with our country.” “That is where the irregularity, illegality, and coercion of these actions lie,” he explained.

On one hand, he added, international companies, Cuba's traditional partners around the world, are being threatened to prevent them from continuing their economic and commercial relationship with the country. On the other hand, "the aim is to strengthen the presence of U.S. companies."

Airlines and shipping companies

As an example, he referred to the airlines. Due to the energy blockade and the "impossibility of acquiring the aviation fuel that airlines need to refuel in Cuba," some, because of the increased costs, were unable to maintain their flights to the island. This had a direct impact on international tourism, "one of the main sources of income for our economy and precisely one of the objectives of this energy embargo."

“However, US airlines continue to fly to Cuba without any concerns,” he noted. Some have even “increased or modified their flight frequencies based on market demand.”

Similarly, he noted, this has occurred in the maritime sector. The major international shipping companies that had worked with Cuba for decades “have completely stopped or limited cargo transport to Cuba due to restrictions imposed by the United States, which are also illegal and violate international trade norms.”

This has resulted in “these shipping companies abandoning basic food items and medicines in ports in our region.” He cited as an example that “the raw materials for serum production and the packaging for its manufacture in our country were left stranded in containers in Panama.” This forced “enormous efforts to prevent a shortage of the serum our population needs,” at a time when, due to the weather, outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, and other illnesses are occurring, increasing its consumption.

There were also “delays in the arrival of raw materials and supplies for patients receiving ongoing hemodialysis treatment,” with “direct impacts on these patients as a result of the threats against international shipping companies.” He clarified that some shipping companies have begun discreetly transporting cargo related to food and medicine, “but in a very limited way.”

A dependency based on coercion

Pérez-Oliva recalled that Cuba has stated on other occasions that with these actions the US administration also seeks to increase the island's economic dependence on the United States, "but on the basis of coercion, threats, and blackmail of foreign companies." This relationship, he specified, "should develop naturally if the embargo were lifted."

He considered this to be one of the effects with “a multidimensional impact on the basic services of our population,” and mentioned the case of energy. Cuba is developing an energy transition program toward renewable sources, with the installation of generation capacity for the National Electric System, and companies have been acquiring the means “to maintain their viability in the context of the energy crisis.” However, he denounced that the threats against shipping companies “have been aimed at preventing or delaying the arrival of components for the installation of photovoltaic solar systems in our country.”

The mining sector

Regarding the situation of mining companies, he noted that the sector is “one of the sectors expressly mentioned in Executive Order 14404, issued on May 1,” along with the energy, banking, and financial sectors. The order also includes “a large section labeled 'Other,'” so “all sectors deemed illegal by U.S. authorities under that order could be included.”

He clarified that “no mining company has withdrawn from Cuba.” “Sherritt remains in our country, maintains its joint venture in Cuba, and so does the other company you mentioned,” he said, referring to Antilles Gold. What has happened, he explained, is that “one of the joint ventures in which Sherritt participates has been directly sanctioned.” Regarding Antilles Gold, he stated that “it is in the same situation,” and added that “Cuban companies involved in mining sector businesses have also been sanctioned.”

This, he said, “has generated fear, uncertainty, and concern among companies that had been conducting business with Cuba in a natural and legal manner.” Given this situation, “these companies are evaluating alternatives to see how they can continue their operations.”

Regarding the interest of U.S. companies, he stated: “First of all, we have not blocked any U.S. company from doing business with Cuba.” He acknowledged that they have information that talks are underway, but “we cannot offer any further details because we lack specifics.”

He insisted that Cuba has “no policy prohibiting U.S. companies from investing in Cuba, trading with our country, or conducting business of any kind.” “What prevents this possibility is precisely the existence of the embargo,” he maintained, since any participation by a U.S. company “will require the express authorization of the U.S. administration.” “That is where the main limitations lie for the United States in engaging in normal relations with Cuba in trade, investment, and cooperation in general,” he stated.

Cuba remains attractive to trading partners

When asked how Cuba prevents the United States from benefiting from a market without competitors, he responded that “we have continued to receive expressions of interest from businesses and companies from all regions of the world ,” even in this uncertain environment. He attributed this interest to the economic and social transformations that the country is implementing “in an accelerated and responsible manner.”

He explained that some of these companies were already in the country and want to expand their presence, while others are new. “A significant portion of them are also linked to Cubans living abroad who have seen these transformations as an opportunity to contribute to our economic and social development and, of course, to make a profit, as any business allows,” he said.

He reiterated that the U.S. government's actions "are aimed at creating a forced economic dependence on Cuba," but that "we continue working with foreign companies." He didn't mention names, he explained, "because there is a direct economic war against Cuba," and anyone "could be subject to sanctions next Thursday or this Thursday." He asserted that many companies and businesspeople "approach our country every day to express their interests and business proposals," and that they are working "with a very positive dynamic in approving new projects."

When asked about the alleged overtures of companies linked to President Donald Trump, including a group called Dominari, he responded: “I have no knowledge of any overtures to Cuba by companies linked to President Trump at this time.” He reiterated that the country has not blocked the participation of any company, “provided that they contribute, as planned, to the economic and social development of our country and are carried out in accordance with and respect for our laws,” and that Cuba also respects “the norms and mechanisms of international trade.”

A new real estate policy

Regarding opportunities for investors interested in building, for example, in the Miramar coastal area, the Deputy Prime Minister explained that "the country's real estate policy has been updated" in two key areas. First, "the term for granting real rights over state-owned property has been extended," including surface rights over land, which "can be granted for 99 years and even, in some cases, under what is known as a perpetual surface right." Second, the recent amendment to the Civil Code allows for extending the term of usufruct rights over existing facilities.

This combination, along with the possibility of selling real estate units when a company develops business in this sector, “has created an attractive environment for real estate transactions in our country.” The policy for developing businesses in conservation areas and heritage zones was also updated, a point of interest for many entrepreneurs. He specifically mentioned Old Havana, “which is generating a lot of interest,” and noted that the Malecón area “is also very attractive to entrepreneurs working in the real estate sector.”

A company or entrepreneur with the resources to develop a project based on these policies, “which are fully aligned with existing real estate development policies worldwide, can develop this type of business.” The height of the buildings and their location, he clarified, “will depend on the urban planning regulations we have established for each area of ​​the city.” He concluded that, with the updated policies and the implementation of economic and social transformations, “there is a very interesting scenario for real estate development in our country right now . ”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53451770

Duration - 3:24
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Last year, ICE detained Heidy Sánchez at an scheduled immigration appointment and deported her to Cuba within days, separating her from her husband and two-year-old daughter in Tampa.

Belly of the Beast spoke with her in Havana after her deportation. She had an immigration lawyer, who helped her apply at the U.S. embassy for a visa to reunite with her family in the United States.

More than a year has passed, and her requests to return to the United States have gone unanswered.

In July, four Democratic members of Congress met with Heidy as she recounted the moment ICE took her daughter from her arms.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53452610

Duration - 2:54 
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), a Cuban-American hardliner from Miami, made headlines recently when she broke with Trump over the mass deportations she long supported.

Belly of the Beast journalist María Karla Acosta Toledo breaks down how Salazar’s unwavering support of Trump and his Cuba policy have helped create the political mess she now finds herself in.

The residents of the Virginia neighborhood in Santa Clara are among those most affected by the constant power outages and breakdowns plaguing the power lines and transformers. They can be without electricity for many consecutive hours, making it a real ordeal to prepare food, charge appliances, and endure the sweltering summer heat.

Marleny Pérez Sánchez, a resident of that community, has been without electricity for seven days due to a major transformer failure in her neighborhood. This Thursday, we found her at the soup kitchen set up by the Gomate Local Development Project (PDL), cooking the day's meal in two pots to feed her family of 12, including six children.

"Imagine what would have become of us if it weren't for this facility, where they make it easy for us to prepare food, as well as recharge our fans and cell phones," explains the distressed woman, who has words of praise for Julio Ernesto Gomate Morales, director of the PDL, creator of the first solar station located in Villa Clara, and the team that accompanies him.

"To be honest, I had no life every time the power went out. Add to the heat and desperation caused by the blackouts and the mosquitoes that I had to start lighting charcoal to cook food, a process that, besides being time-consuming, is expensive, because a sack costs me 2,000 or 3,000 pesos, money I can't always afford," she explains.

Now Marleny has a place to go to solve some of her daily problems, and, like her, many of the neighbors in this neighborhood come to this place every day to recharge their equipment or cook their daily meals, which is a free process, explains Diosvany Gutiérrez Pérez, the person in charge of carrying out and controlling the activity.

"Between 50 and 100 people come here every day, some to charge cell phones, fans, lamps, or to cook, and they aren't charged a penny. Others come to recharge their mopeds, Ecoflow scooters, or tricycles, and they are required to pay a fee, quite modest, by the way," explains Diosvany.

Marlen Azcón Pérez, another beneficiary of this solar charging station, expresses her gratitude: “This has been a blessing for the community. You know what it’s like not having the smoke from lighting charcoal inside my apartment building, plus being able to come home from work and cook several dishes at once, thanks to this charging station. This is priceless,” she tells us.

Another grateful person is Jesús Rodríguez Lobaina, who, after a long trip to Sancti Spíritus from Havana in an electric car, was about to run out of charge at kilometer 259, a situation he was able to avoid thanks to the Solguara charging station on the highway, near Santa Clara, which can provide slow or fast charging to vehicles that require it.

"I think there should be many more facilities like this along such an important road. The number of electric cars has increased in the country, and charging stations like this one are an incentive to own these types of vehicles," the driver said.

• To date, 50 charging stations have been created in the province. Photo: Freddy Pérez Cabrera

WITHOUT CREATIVITY IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FACE THE SIEGE

Among the many ways to confront the blockade and the intensified economic strangulation measures imposed by the US government is the promotion of renewable energies, because, as we Cubans often say, the sun cannot be blocked.

One of the most tangible examples of the decision to challenge that policy is the creation of solar charging stations, through which the population can partially solve the lack of electricity, due to the fuel shortage, constant breakdowns and other known factors.

On the subject, Alfredo Alejandro Leiva Céspedes, head of the Energy Standardization and Evaluation Group at Onure Villa Clara, explained that to date 50 stations of this type have been created in the territory, including those where vehicles can also be charged.

"Of the total, 34 are located in the provincial capital, as it is where the largest number of people live and also where the largest number of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), self-employed workers, and local development projects are concentrated, which are the protagonists of many of the projects that have had such a good impact on the population," the official points out.

According to Alfredo, there are 15 new projects in the planning stages, which will bring the province to 65 establishments of this type, and these will by no means be the last, because there is a strong desire to add new players to this initiative.

To give an idea of ​​the value of this activity, suffice it to say that every day more than 5,000 families in Villa Clara benefit from the charging of different equipment, which constitutes a relief for people in need of cooking, communicating, moving to a destination or mitigating the heat at night with rechargeable fans.

This idea, which is already taking shape in most of the national territory, arose thanks to the support of the Villa Clara authorities, who, in coordination with non-state management forms, promoted the importation of solar panels, inverters and batteries that allowed the execution of these solar charging stations and stations for collective use, explains the director of Onure.

According to his explanation, the aim has been to build most of these facilities in communities with a high degree of electrical impact, so that their benefit is greater and many more people can benefit.

In line with the economic and social transformations in the energy sector, promoting the installation of solar thermal power plants is a priority for the work of state entities and non-state management forms.

Leiva Céspedes highlighted that the installation of solar charging stations in neighborhoods and communities has been complemented by the installation of solar panels in institutions that are high consumers of electricity, and photovoltaic lighting in the main parks and avenues of towns and cities.

This is not a magic bullet for all the problems stemming from an energy blockade that amounts to genocide, affecting the national economy and the lives of millions of people across the island. However, experiences like those described here show that it is possible to improve people's quality of life when political will and economic actors willing to launch new projects come together.

The "We are with Cuba" campaign, promoted by fifty Argentine political, trade union and social groups, is moving forward with the project to send solar energy equipment to Cuban institutions.

Argentinians in solidarity "are organizing to stand with Cuba in one of its most difficult moments, with gratitude, with memory and with their hearts set on Our America," highlights the program presented last night by María Fernanda Ruiz and Belén de los Santos, in charge of the Communication Commission of the campaign.

They clarified that this gesture of solidarity is not only about providing aid, but also about thanking Cuba for all the solidarity it has shown to other peoples, including Argentina, such as the millions of free eye surgeries and the literacy programs for millions of people in 30 nations.

In March, Ruiz and De los Santos presented the communication proposal to representatives of participating organizations who met at the Casa de la Amistad in Buenos Aires, the reference headquarters of the Argentine Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, MASCuba, who evaluated the contributions received and the steps to be taken to get the electricity generation equipment to the island.

The goal is to purchase solar electricity generators for hospitals and other institutions essential to community life on the island.

After recalling that Cuba has been under an intense US blockade for more than 60 years, condemned by the UN General Assembly on 29 consecutive occasions, the journalists denounced that since last January the island has not received oil due to the increased hostility of the Donald Trump administration, which generates more harm to Cuban families and the economy.

“A people who withstood decades of imperial aggression now face one of their cruelest challenges,” they emphasize in the program of the “We Are With Cuba” campaign.

Another important objective is to raise profound social awareness, highlighting the injustice of the blockade and the extraordinary legacy of the Cuban revolution. “That Argentine society knows, remembers, and takes a stand on the current situation.”

“These two objectives reinforce each other: greater awareness leads to greater solidarity; greater solidarity leads to a greater concrete impact on the lives of the Cuban people,” Ruiz and De Los Santos explained.

At the meeting, Rubén Záccaro, president of the House of Friendship in Buenos Aires, announced that another similar institution will soon open in La Rioja, in the Cuyo region of Argentina. He also stated that the current "We Stand with Cuba" campaign is gaining strength and momentum throughout the country.

Source -> https://www.cubainformacion.tv/solidaridad/20260928/125212/125212-campana-estamos-con-cuba-un-mensaje-de-amor-en-forma-de-paneles-solares-desde-argentina

The Cuban capital will take a decisive step toward water and energy security: 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity generated by photovoltaic solar farms will be allocated exclusively to water pumping in Havana.

This was announced by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and President of the Republic, during a broadcast of the program “Criterio Compartido” on Radio Rebelde, in which he stated: “200 megawatts from photovoltaic farms will be allocated solely to the water pumping system.”

The President explained that this initiative will be complemented by the installation of solar complexes and energy storage systems, and he emphasized that distributed generation is the most immediate solution: starting in November, the disruptions will begin to be resolved thanks to the generators that are already being deployed to support the first 29 selected power sources and pumps.

Source -> https://t.me/CubaXSiempre/22221

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53269938

Duration - 4:14
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

At the UN General Assembly today, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla challenged Trump’s claim that Cuba is a “failed state.”

“If that were the case, why did they have to impose a fuel blockade?” he asked.

The U.S. diplomat present walked out during his speech.

HAVANA, Cuba—Last November, 33-year-old truck driver José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló was scrolling TikTok when he came across a live video posted by Raúl Quevedo, a Cuban living in the United States.

It had been nearly a decade since Rodríguez immigrated to the United States from Cuba via a fiancé visa. He later became a permanent resident and was living with his girlfriend and her daughter in Nashville, Tennessee. Still, he harbored deep resentment toward what he saw as a dictatorial government repressing the Cuban people, and he was glad to see Quevedo calling it out.

Quevedo’s account, La Nueva Cuba (The New Cuba), is largely populated with images depicting armed resistance and an imagined post-communist Cuba, many of them AI-generated. Rodríguez messaged Quevedo. Quevedo messaged him back. The two hit it off, and Rodríguez said that Quevedo invited him to Florida to meet a group of like-minded exiles.

“They were looking for people who had the courage to join an armed uprising in Cuba,” Rodríguez said.

Half a year later, Rodríguez would be in Havana, explaining to a reporter how he wound up in Cuban custody—but unbowed in his determination to overthrow the government.

On the evening of February 24, Rodríguez joined nine other men on a fishing boat full of weapons bound for Cuba from the Florida Keys. They planned to seize a police station, ignite an uprising, and prompt U.S. intervention.

“The action plan was simple: Get the Cuban people to rise up in arms, control a province for 72 hours, and ask for a military intervention from the U.S. government,” Rodríguez said in an interview.

Rodríguez and the nine other men encountered the Cuban Border Guard before reaching Cuban soil. A firefight broke out, leaving four of the men—Ledián Padrón Guevara, Pavel Alling Peña, Michel Ortega Casanova, and Héctor Duani Cruz Correa—dead. A fifth, Roberto Álvarez Ávila, would later die from his wounds. The Border Guard suffered no fatal casualties, although the commanding officer of the patrol boat was shot.

Cuban authorities detained the five survivors. The incident made major headlines, but the details—what group the men represented, who funded them, and what their ultimate goal was—remained hazy. Drop Site and Belly of the Beast reached out to Cuban authorities to request interviews with the men and officials investigating the incident. In June, Cuban authorities said they had granted the requests and that four of the five survivors agreed to talk.

José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Christian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, Leordán Enrique Cruz Gómez, and Conrado Galindo Sariol all spoke from custody in July while they awaited trial on terrorism-related charges that could carry sentences up to 30 years in prison. The fifth survivor, Amijail Sánchez González, is also awaiting trial and either declined to be interviewed or was not permitted to speak to journalists.

These interviews offer the first public account of the failed operation from its participants, but, as with any interview conducted with a person in detention, the conditions were less than ideal. Still, even as the men remained at the mercy of Cuban authorities, some were willing to speak in blunt terms about their hostility to the Cuban government and to complain of mistreatment. Where possible, their accounts have been checked against forensic evidence, property records, and interviews with family members and allies in the United States.

The Interviews

The four men were interviewed one at a time in a conference room at a large house in a residential neighborhood of Havana belonging to the Interior Ministry’s International Relations Department (MININT). Each was brought to the house in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, which an officer from Interior Ministry’s Special Tactical Unit removed for the interview. Each interview lasted between 30 and 55 minutes. Follow-up interviews were not possible.

The interviews were conducted in the presence of Edward Robert Campbell, the case’s prosecutor, and Col. Francisco Estrada Portales, who heads the Interior Ministry’s investigations into crimes against national security. All four detainees said they were not pressured into speaking to a journalist or promised anything in return, though that could not be independently verified.

They also said they voluntarily agreed to be interviewed without the presence of legal representation. Their access to lawyers has been uneven. Rodríguez said he had not yet found a lawyer willing to take his case. Cruz said he had not asked for a lawyer yet. Acosta said he had met with his attorney several times. According to his wife, Ana Seguí, Galindo has been represented by a lawyer since March.

The four men answered questions about how they became involved, the voyage, the clash with the Cuban Border Guard, and their time in custody. None showed outward signs of duress, but their accounts of their involvement and their attitudes toward the operation varied. Galindo said he had been forced to go; Acosta expressed regret; Cruz remained committed to “freedom” for Cuba but questioned whether armed struggle was the right path; Rodríguez was openly defiant and committed to fighting to overthrow the Cuban government.

Their accounts broadly corroborated one another on the operation’s objective and what happened once they encountered the Border Guard. But they diverged over who funded and planned the operation and how involved Cuban exile organizations were. Those unresolved questions center largely on Maritza Lugo Fernández, a longtime Cuban activist living in Miami who knew most of the ten men on the boat and whom the four men interviewed said provided a small farm in Florida as their training ground.

Cuban authorities also granted interviews with a senior Border Guard official, the Interior Ministry’s lead investigator, a ballistics expert, a forensic pathologist, the top Interior Ministry doctor, and the prosecutor.

Recruited on TikTok

Like José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Christian Ernesto Acosta Guevara found out about the group last year through TikTok. At the time, he was working as a driver for a moving company in Austin, Texas. A permanent resident, Acosta had been in the U.S. for about ten years and planned to apply for citizenship this year.

He connected with Pavel Alling Peña, a 45-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen living in Florida who created a TikTok account in late May 2025 called the Cardumen Movement (cardumen means a school of fish).

“I wrote a comment that I wished Cuba could prosper, be more liberal. That’s when he contacted me,” Acosta said. “He asked if I wanted a free Cuba. I said yes, I hoped it would happen one day.”

Alling invited him to join the Cardumen Movement, Acosta recalled, telling him it was a group dedicated to publishing videos, posters and other material in favor of Cuba’s freedom. Later that year, Alling told Acosta about a group of people training for a “military intervention” in Cuba.

“He asked if I was willing to join them and I said no problem, just tell me where,” Acosta said. “He said, ‘Come to my house, and I’ll take you with me.’”

In November, they went to a finca, or small farm, near Fort Myers, Florida, to begin training. Amid the peppers, sugarcane, and farm animals, there was a rustic shooting range.

Acosta and the other three detainees interviewed said they were told the finca belonged to Maritza Lugo Fernández, a Cuban-born political activist who runs an anti-communist organization called the Partido 30 de Noviembre (November 30 Party). Lugo denied any knowledge of the operation but confirmed she gave one of the men—Amijail Sánchez González—access to the property.

The party traces its roots to the Movimiento Revolucionario 30 de Noviembre “Frank País,” an underground anti-Castro group that was founded in Cuba in 1960 and later reorganized in Florida after several of its leaders went into exile. In 1991, the exile movement helped establish the 30 de Noviembre Party inside Cuba. Lugo was among its founding members and later assumed its leadership after her husband, Rafael Ibarra Roque, was imprisoned in 1994. She moved to South Florida in 2002 and continued the party’s work from exile.

While Acosta and Rodríguez each made multiple trips to the finca to train for the mission, they both insisted they knew few details about what the group’s leaders were planning. They identified the leaders as Roberto Álvarez Ávila, who died a week after being shot during the clash with the Cuban Border Guard, and Leordán Enrique Cruz Gómez. Acosta said Amijail Sánchez González, co-founder of a militant organization called the Auto Defensa del Pueblo (ADP), was also a leader.

“[The leaders] kept the plans hidden for security reasons, to avoid leaks,” Rodríguez said.

In January, the group’s leaders asked Acosta, Rodríguez, and several others who had been training to remain at the finca while they readied a boat for the trip to Cuba.

According to Rodríguez’s girlfriend, Yeni Rodríguez, he left their house in Nashville on Friday, January 23, telling her he was going to a camp in Florida with some friends. She said he collected magazines about guns and owned two or three firearms, which he took with him. She said he had a full-time job driving a dump truck, hauling dirt and stone to construction sites, and she expected him to return soon.

The operation was a “complete surprise” to her. “Who throws his life away like that?” she said.

Ultimately, Raúl Quevedo—a 40-year-old carpenter who runs a home renovation company incorporated in Bradenton, Florida in addition to La Nueva Cuba Corp, registered in the state as a nonprofit organization—did not join the other men on the boat. Reached by phone, Quevedo said he was in touch with most of the men through TikTok, but declined to answer questions about his relationship to them and whether he was involved in the operation.

“I have nothing to say about that,” he said. “The more you talk, the more your enemy knows about you.”

Quevedo said overthrowing the Cuban government is “doable” with enough money, but he was critical of the operation.

“It wasn’t the right timing. It wasn’t the right organization. It wasn’t organized,” he said. “For something like that, you have to have a plan, structure, a Plan B and Plan C, and an escape plan. If you don’t have that, being only 10 people, you’re lost. And it’s a shame because they were good guys.”

Trying to Light a Spark, Maybe

Before the operation, Leordán Cruz Gómez said he lived in Tampa and worked as an industrial painter for a Missouri-based company called Thomas Industrial Coating. He had left Cuba in 2014 aboard a makeshift boat and landed in the Marquesas Keys, later obtaining permanent residency and ultimately U.S. citizenship.

Cruz said someone he met on a WhatsApp group invited him to the finca. He said that initially the training there had no specific operation in mind, but the worsening crisis in Cuba—and the relentless stream of desperate images from the island circulating on social media—inspired them to make concrete plans for armed action.

“It had become almost unbearable,” said Cruz, who left behind his wife and nine-year-old son. “There was the constant bombardment on social media. Everything we were seeing: mothers with children searching the garbage for food, buildings collapsing, all those crises. That perhaps made it feel more serious.”

Since President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. government has hammered Cuba with “maximum pressure” sanctions that have ravaged the country’s economy, fueling unprecedented migration and a growing humanitarian crisis that the UN high commissioner for human rights says is “endangering lives.”

However, many Cubans on and off the island blame the Cuban government for the economic crisis. This view has been amplified by social media feeds inundated with content minimizing the role of sanctions—some of it produced by U.S. government-funded media outlets and other organizations, and some coming directly from U.S. officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Cruz said he initially began training militarily with an armed group called La Nueva Nación Cubana en Armas (The New Cuban Nation in Arms)—an organization Cuban authorities allege was behind a 2023 terrorist plot that also aimed to provoke an armed uprising.

But after becoming disillusioned with the group’s lack of a political vision for a post-Communist Cuba, he gravitated toward Lugo’s 30 de Noviembre Party and the Republican Party of Cuba, a conservative exile group based in Florida.

Cruz said he and the other men began planning the incursion approximately a year in advance. Although he had no formal military training, he attempted to prepare himself by reading books and watching videos of Navy SEALs and Delta Force soldiers.

“I often led the military training sessions and taught people how to shoot,” he said.

Cruz insisted there were no leaders and decisions were made collectively, although he said Álvarez was more involved in planning the operation.

Although one of the Republican Party of Cuba’s members, Michel Ortega Casanova, joined the operation, the group’s president, Ibrahim Bosch, denied any links to the armed incursion and said he did not know Cruz.

In a phone interview, Bosch said he knew Ortega, who had led the party in Tampa but had stepped down for work-related reasons.

Bosch said he had heard of training and shooting practice happening at “Maritza’s finca,” but was unaware of any plans to stage an incursion and of Ortega’s involvement.

“It’s possible that some of our people went at the same time as [the men training for the incursion], but they didn’t go as Republican Party members to train and shoot, but as individuals,” Bosch said.

The plan, according to Cruz, was to seize control of a police station in Cárdenas, Matanzas, a city about 90 miles east of Havana, and to then incite people to take the streets. Another member of the group already in Cuba planned to meet the boat on the coast to organize transportation inland, Cruz said. Cuban authorities later arrested Duniel Hernández Santos, who they allege was the group’s ground contact.

(The account Cuban officials obtained through interrogations was slightly different. According to Col. Estrada, the plan was to seize the police station in Santa Marta, about eight miles away from Cárdenas, and the nearby Varadero Border Guard Unit. Cruz said he understood only the broad outlines of the operation and that Álvarez had worked out the details.)

“It’s illogical to think that 10 men can declare war on a country. That would be absurd,” Cruz said. “But we were aware of the social discontent. We knew people wanted something to happen. A spark, maybe.”

The men never made it to shore.

A Plot in Plain Sight

As the men honed their shooting skills at the farm and plotted to spark a rebellion in Cuba, they made no secret of their intentions.

On May 29, 2025, two days after creating the Cardumen Movement TikTok account, Pavel Alling Peña posted an image of two semi-automatic rifles with a text that read: “Collecting funds for Cuba’s freedom.” In the comments, he wrote: “More information will be provided soon. This didn’t just begin. We’ve been planning this for 2 years. But as you’ll understand, there is a lot at stake.”

In the following months, Alling’s posts offered glimpses of the preparations underway.

Last September, he posted a photo of a camouflaged waterproof backpack with the text: “My new acquisition.” In a selfie video posted a month later, Alling announced: “We are very close. And soon the first steps will be taken.”

Sometime before their trip, Acosta and Ledián Padrón Guevara, one of the five men killed by the Cuban Border Guard, appeared in a video at what appears to be a gun store showing off semi-automatic rifles. Univision journalist Javier Díaz subsequently published the video.

Meanwhile, the political organizations associated with the men were publicly advocating for the use of force against the Cuban government.

“The only way to remove the murderous communist dictatorship clinging to power is to confront it physically. And we are willing to do so,” Javier Berovides, a Cuban activist living in Florida, said in August 2025 at the first annual Anti-Communist Summit of the Cuban Right in Miami. Berovides claimed to be speaking in the name of Lugo’s 30 de Noviembre Party, Sánchez’s ADP, and his own organization, Movimiento Escudo Cubano (Cuban Shield Movement).

On its 2025 federal tax return, Movimiento Escudo Cubano identified itself as a church, although its website says it’s a movement defending human and civil rights in Cuba. Maritza Lugo is Movimiento Escudo Cubano’s vice-president, while Berovides is a member of 30 de Noviembre. Berovides declined to comment.

On January 1, Conrado Galindo posted an AI-generated photo on Facebook of himself holding a semi-automatic weapon in fatigues and a bulletproof vest. The caption reads: “Everything for freedom.”

Later that month, Raúl Quevedo posted a video on TikTok in which he appears dressed in fatigues holding a rifle with a Cuban flag in the background. “From the New Cuba, I send this message to all the Cubans on the island,” he says. “The time is very near to achieve our freedom. And work is underway on all fronts to make that happen. And now, one very important moment is that the American government, under the leadership and presidency of Donald Trump, is finally doing things. And we Cubans living in exile are willing to give everything for our freedom. And we are also ready to join the American government’s fight.”

Quevedo insisted the video had nothing to do with the operation and was instead inspired by the U.S. military action in Venezuela that led to the abduction of Nicolás Maduro. He said he hoped to encourage the Trump administration to take similar action in Cuba.

“The uniform and gun was to show to the American government in case they wanted Cuban men in the United States to join,” he said.

On January 30, Alling posted on Facebook: “The time has come for those dictators who stole our country. Thanks to all those committed to this struggle and for their efforts and desire. Cuba will be free and we will rebuild it as God commands.”

The next day, Sánchez posted a press release from ADP, the 30 de Noviembre Party, Movimiento Escudo Cubano, and Alling’s Cardumen Movement, declaring: “There is no space for negotiation [with the Cuban government]. Our objective: A free, just and sovereign Cuba.”

None of those organizations are widely known in Cuba, but their public postings of an impending attack seemed to draw the attention of Cuban authorities. On February 5, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned of “plans for terrorist acts that are being supported, financed and prepared from the United States to attack Cuba.”

Ten Men, 25 Guns

After sunset on February 24, the men set out in two boats from Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Cuban authorities said the boats contained weapons and other equipment: 25 firearms—14 long arms and 11 handguns—along with some 13,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 100 magazines, homemade pipe bombs packed with fragments of nuts and bolts and black powder, Molotov cocktails, bulletproof vests, camouflage uniforms and helmets, knives, night-vision equipment, a drone, a Starlink satellite-internet terminal, and medical supplies.

They had purchased one boat for the operation, and they had been told the other was borrowed. About halfway to Cuba, the motor on the purchased boat stopped working, Acosta said. The men transferred their weapons and gear to the other boat—El Tornado—and all ten continued.

El Tornado was a 24-foot Pro-Line fishing boat built in 1981, bearing the Florida registration number FL7726SH. One of the men on board, Héctor Duani Cruz Correa, who had been doing tile work as a contractor for its owner, took the fishing boat.

According to Acosta, Cruz Correa told the group that he had permission to take the boat fishing. The boat’s owner, Angel Walter Montera, later reported the boat stolen and told the Monroe County police that he wished to press charges.

The men had planned to arrive under cover of darkness, but the breakdown delayed them, according to Cruz Gómez. “We knew that if daylight caught up with us, there was a chance they’d see us,” he said.

At approximately 7 a.m., a lookout at a Cuban Border Guard post on Cayo Bahía de Cádiz, a cay off Cuba’s northern coast, spotted the boat less than four nautical miles to the northwest. A radar operator confirmed the sighting and began tracking its course and speed, according to First Col. Ybey Carballo Pérez, the Border Guard’s chief of staff.

Cruz Gómez said they steered the boat toward a small cay near shore, hoping to hide until nightfall. But the tide was out, and El Tornado ran aground in shallow water.

“Almost everyone got out of the boat to try to dislodge it and keep going, and to add more fuel because we were almost out,” Acosta said. “That’s when we saw a boat coming toward us. We didn’t know it was the Border Guard, but we assumed it was. We got the boat free, and everyone got on board.”

But El Tornado, at a maximum speed of 24 knots, could not outrun the Border Guard vessel.

“By the time we took off, the Coast Guard boat was almost on top of us,” Acosta said. “That’s when Leordán Cruz Gómez shouted: ‘Get ready. They’re going to shoot. Look for the magazines.’”

Most of the weapons aboard El Tornado were wrapped in moving blankets and packed inside bags. “The magazines and the guns were in different bags,” Acosta said. The group had expected to slip ashore undetected, Cruz and Rodríguez said—not fight its way onto the island.

Cuban authorities say someone aboard El Tornado fired first, striking the Border Guard captain in the abdomen. All four men confirmed that the first shot came from their own boat.

“One of us fired the first shot. I have to admit that,” said Rodríguez, who was the most critical of Cuban authorities.

Rodríguez, Cruz and Galindo said they did not know who fired first. Acosta said Amijail Sánchez took the first shot.

“Amijail grabbed a magazine for the Chinese-made AK-47 he had and opened fire on the Coast Guard. That’s when a shootout began. I don’t know exactly what happened because at that point I got scared and threw myself onto the floor of the boat so I wouldn’t get hit by the gunfire,” he said.

The five-man Border Guard crew carried just five weapons: the captain’s handgun, three AKM assault rifles (a modernized version of an AK-47) and an RPK light machine gun, a longer-barreled relative of the AKM. According to Estrada, none of the five Border Guard officers had combat experience.

Lt. Col. Avelino Guilarte Paumier, the forensics ballistics expert assigned to the case, said that after the shooting, investigators found five rifles and three pistols outside the bags. Spent casings recovered from the boat were matched to just three weapons: a Glock 19 pistol and two Ruger Precision rifles.

Guilarte said the number of recovered shell casings did not necessarily reflect the number of shots fired because the clash occurred on the water and evidence had fallen into the sea. Divers searched the area but found no additional casings, he said.

Nine of the ten men were shot, while on the Cuban side, only the Border Guard captain was wounded. All four men interviewed said they did not fire a shot.

“It was only when I managed to pull out a rifle that a bullet hit me,” said Cruz, adding that the all-night voyage had left the men physically depleted and slow to react.

“We had been vomiting [from sea sickness],” he said. “We were wet, cold and exhausted. It kept us from thinking. It paralyzed us.”

“At that moment, all I could think to do was put the weapon beside me and lie down in the boat,” Acosta said. “I got scared,” he added. “I always said back at the farm that shooting at a target, a bullseye, is not the same as facing people in real life who are shooting back at you.”

The exchange lasted minutes, according to the survivors and Cuban authorities. Cruz eventually raised an arm to signal surrender. Galindo said one of the Border Guards continued firing until the wounded captain ordered him to stop.

“The captain shouted at him—shouted strongly,” Galindo said. “If the captain had let him continue, he would have killed us all.”

Ledián Padrón Guevara, Héctor Duani Cruz Correa, and Pavel Alling Peña died aboard El Tornado. Michel Ortega Casanova died while being evacuated. Roberto Álvarez Ávila died a week later, on March 4, from complications associated with his wounds.

Investigators counted 14 bullet impacts on the Border Guard vessel and 23 on El Tornado. The boats were moving throughout the firefight, making it difficult to reconstruct events and impossible to establish a precise firing distance, according to Cuban ballistics expert Guilarte.

“We can’t know if it was 20, 25, or 30 meters,” he said. “What we can show scientifically is that it wasn’t at close range.” Álvarez was the only one who died from a gunshot wound above the neck—a bullet entered through his shoulder blade and struck him in the jaw—but investigators determined he was not shot at close range.

“Perhaps the idea was somewhat naive because we hadn’t prepared for every possible situation,” said Cruz. “We weren’t prepared to face the Border Guard.”

“We had no training to confront the Cuban Border Guard,” Rodríguez said.

A Long History of Violence—and Impunity

In the years before the attempted incursion, Cuba had already placed two of its participants—Amijail Sánchez González in 2023 and Leordán Enrique Cruz Gómez in 2025—on its national list of terrorism suspects for financing acts of violence on Cuban soil. Cuba also submitted the list to the United Nations as part of its reporting under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373.

Sánchez’s Facebook page is littered with videos of burning sugar cane fields in Cuba and graffiti featuring the name of the organization he co-founded, the Auto Defensa del Pueblo, or ADP. The page of ADP’s co-founder, Michel “Kiki” Naranjo Riverón, features a post offering to pay $1,000 to anyone who kills a Cuban police officer.

“Burning a building, cutting fiber optic cables in Camagüey, lighting fire to a hospital, burning an electrical generator,” Col. Estrada said. “In a year and a half, one person [in Cuba] committed 18 acts of terrorism that were financed by Amijail and his organization, the Auto Defensa del Pueblo, designated as a terrorist organization and which is based and acts openly in the United States.”

The U.S. has not designated this organization as a terrorist group. Nor is there any indication that U.S. authorities took any action to dissuade Sánchez, who in 2021 was convicted in Florida of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer for striking a moving police car with a vehicle he was driving in Miami, and the other men despite their open preparations for armed action in Cuba.

Since the Cuban revolution, the U.S. has frequently tolerated acts of violence and terrorism aimed at overthrowing the communist government.

In March 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA plan to topple the Cuban government by forming exile groups, launching a radio station to broadcast U.S. propaganda on the island, creating “a covert intelligence and action organization” inside Cuba, and training paramilitary forces outside the island. This culminated in the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Shortly after, the CIA launched Operation Mongoose to coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism aimed at civilian targets in Cuba.

After direct CIA support was phased out, exile paramilitary groups continued staging attacks from Florida. In 1971, when the Coast Guard sought to rein in Alpha 66, a U.S.-based Cuban-American terrorist organization, President Richard Nixon wrote: “We should not inhibit Cuban exile activity against their homeland.”

Five years later, two bombs killed 73 people aboard Cubana Flight 455 in the deadliest act of airline terrorism in the Western Hemisphere at the time. The suspected masterminds were paramilitary leaders Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles. Both men lived in Florida until their deaths and were never prosecuted in the United States for the bombing.

Militants based in Florida and New Jersey also staged attacks on U.S. soil, including bombings of businesses that dealt with Cuba and the assassinations of a Cuban diplomat and a Cuban-American advocate for dialogue with Havana. The FBI considered one of the armed groups, Omega 7, to be the most dangerous terrorist organization in the United States.

The acts of terrorism continued into the 1990s, as militants in speedboats sprayed beachside resorts with machine gun fire and a bombing campaign targeted hotels in Havana, killing an Italian tourist and injuring several others.

In 1998, Cuban officials handed the FBI extensive documentation detailing dozens of U.S.-based terrorist plots. The FBI responded by arresting undercover Cuban agents in Florida who had infiltrated the terrorist networks.

As recently as December 2023, Cuban authorities said they foiled an attempt by people linked to La Nueva Nación Cubana en Armas to foment an armed rebellion. They captured a Florida man who had allegedly traveled to Cuba with handguns and ammunition on a jet ski and then tried to recruit people to commit acts of violence and arson.

“We’ve been attacked for 67 years and while it may seem that these things are something of the past, it’s not the past,” said Col. Estrada, the Interior Ministry investigator. “For those of us working to combat terrorism, we’ve seen how this type of activity is constantly happening in the United States.”

Maritza Lugo

Cuban authorities say the operation involved multiple leaders, but they allege that Maritza Lugo, head of the 30 de Noviembre Party, was its mastermind.

“She was the one who organized, financed and oversaw the logistics of everything,” Estrada alleged. “[The finca] is where everything was prepared. It’s where they trained, prepared, and tested the explosives. Even the [purchased] boat was there. They left from there for the coast, for Marathon Key.”

Lugo denies any involvement in the operation. “The Castro regime has accused me endlessly—of being a terrorist, of paying for things,” she said. “What could I possibly pay for? I live on [Social Security]. I receive $700 a month, which isn’t enough for anything. I try to save. I do odd jobs. My family helps me if I need something extra. But I don’t have the money to finance absolutely anything.”

Born in 1963 on the outskirts of Havana, Lugo became politically active in the 1990s alongside her then husband, Rafael Ibarra Roque. Together they founded the 30 de Noviembre Party, but Lugo assumed its leadership when Cuban authorities arrested Ibarra in 1994 and sentenced him in February 1995 to 20 years for sabotage. Cuban authorities accused Ibarra of setting off an explosive device at a military building. Lugo maintains the charges were trumped up.

Lugo herself was arrested and imprisoned multiple times and identified by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. She says she was kept in isolation and subjected to torture.

In 2002, Lugo left Cuba for South Florida, where she has been a persistent, albeit relatively fringe, presence among Cuba’s exile opposition. She has occasionally had the spotlight, being interviewed about rights abuses in Cuba, appearing at a Capitol Hill news conference, meeting with members of Congress, and greeting President George W. Bush during a White House visit.

Recently, Lugo has also been associated with figures linked to political violence. She was featured prominently at a July 2025 event sponsored by the Hispanic Republican Club of Collier County, Florida, alongside Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol and subsequently pardoned by President Donald Trump.

In 2018, Lugo posted a photo of herself with Luis Posada Carriles, the paramilitary leader, a month before he died. Another photo of their encounter was posted earlier this year on a Facebook page called “10 Cuban Patriots,” which Lugo says she created in support of the men involved in the February incursion. The post praises Posada Carriles as “a great man and friend, a great patriot” and “the terror of the great demon Fidel Castro.”

In recent years, Lugo’s 30 de Noviembre Party forged an alliance with ADP, which has openly endorsed violence and sabotage as a means of overthrowing the Cuban government. Their relationship was both political and personal. According to Lugo, she was romantically involved with Amijail Sánchez, ADP’s co-founder, for about a year, and he was living with her before he joined the incursion.

While ADP was the military arm of the group that went to Cuba, the 30 de Noviembre Party was the political arm, according to Cruz.

“If we succeeded, 30 de Noviembre was the group that would present its political program to the people,” he said.

The fatigues and helmets that Cuban authorities say they seized bore patches featuring the insignia of both ADP and the 30 de Noviembre Party.

Since February, Lugo has been most visible as a prominent public advocate for the imprisoned men, organizing events to support them and posting frequently online about their case.

In a telephone interview from Miami, she said she knew most of the men before their ill-fated trip.

Yet, despite her romantic relationship with Sánchez and the alliance between their two organizations, she said she knew nothing about the operation and would have opposed it had she known.

“They are very good people who did something crazy,” she said. “They went far beyond the bounds of what is normal because what they did was truly madness. Who in their right mind could think that 10 men could accomplish anything against a dictatorship like that?”

“I am very much in favor, and I’ve said so publicly, of a military intervention, but a military intervention by the United States, a country that has enough power to overthrow such a cruel regime,” she continued. “Trump has all the resources, all the intelligence and all the means necessary for it to succeed and achieve its objective. But doing it the other way is a waste of courage. It’s a tragedy for any Cuban to lose their life over something like that.”

The Finca

The Hendry County Property Appraiser’s records show Lugo owned a 13-acre farm in LaBelle, Florida, a rural area an hour east of Fort Myers, from March 2020 until September 2024. She sold the property to her daughter, Rosalia Agnello, and Alexis Martínez, a Miami resident who took full possession in July 2025.

Acosta, Rodríguez, and Cruz said they trained at the farm in the months leading up to the February 2026 operation, even after it was sold to Martínez. But both Martínez and Lugo acknowledge that she continued to have access to the property.

Lugo said that the finca was used for shooting practice and hunting rabbits, doves and wild hogs. “At the finca, you can shoot safely, and it’s permitted in that area,” she said. “We hunt animals there. We shoot because we like guns.”

She said she never witnessed any military training or preparations for an incursion into Cuba. “Anyone who trained on my finca, who said they trained, that’s their problem,” she said. “Here in the United States, that is against the law. It’s a crime.”

From his home in Miami, Martínez said Lugo was formerly his romantic partner and that they remained friends. He said he demolished the shooting range shortly after taking full possession of the property, and knew nothing about any training taking place there.

However, in response to an inquiry for this story, Hendry County Sheriff’s detectives went to the property in August and observed what appeared to be “a three-sided berm designed for multidimensional shooting exercises.”

According to the detectives, the structure appeared designed “to facilitate training that incorporates multiple shooting angles and directions rather than functioning as a traditional shoot house.”

The Hendry County Sheriff’s Office has received no reports or complaints of any gunshots, explosions or any criminal activity happening at the address, according to Public Information Officer Capt. Susan Harrelle.

The sheriff’s office contacted the FBI, ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, the Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but Harrelle said they have received no information confirming that military training took place on the property.

Cruz and Rodríguez said that Lugo was often present while they met and trained, though she was not involved with planning the incursion or obtaining weapons.

“She was always at the finca, helping with the logistics, food, transportation, making sure we weren’t lacking for anything,” said Rodríguez.

Lugo gave a different account.

“I’m almost always in Miami,” she said. “I would go to the finca, spend one, two or three days there, and then return to Miami. [Sánchez] had free rein there and did whatever he wanted because I trusted him.”

Rodríguez said individual members of the group provided the weapons. “Nobody ever paid us anything,” said Rodríguez. “We were self-financed. We bought our own bullets, our own rifles, our own military equipment.”

Lugo was not involved in the planning, Acosta said, but her party was their “sponsor.” “What she did mostly was handle the political part,” said Rodríguez.

• Patches bearing the insignia of Auto Defensa del Pueblo (ADP) and a Partido Democrático 30 de Noviembre patch affixed to a helmet. Cuban authorities say these were recovered from the boats.

“He’s No Terrorist”

Conrado Galindo’s account diverges from the others. A 59-year-old permanent resident living in Miami, Galindo ran a small delivery business, but he had studied video production at the Miami Media School.

According to Galindo, a former classmate recommended him to Lugo, who offered $500 to film and edit the training videos. Galindo said when he arrived at the finca, Lugo told him he would be joining the other men on the incursion into Cuba.

“She told me: ‘There’s a change in plans. You’re going to Cuba,’” he said.

Galindo said he protested, but was threatened by Lugo and another member of the group, Roberto Álvarez Ávila. He said they took his phone and his green card.

Acosta said he also gave his phone and green card to Lugo and that Cruz warned him not to leave because they had “sworn an oath.”

Lugo denied both men’s accounts, and claimed the testimonies of all four men were coerced.

“Everything they are saying is a lie, and I don’t blame them,” she said. “What are they supposed to say? They want to save their lives, and they are being forced to say those things.”

Reached by phone, Galindo’s wife, Ana Seguí, said she met Lugo at events in Miami in support of the detainees, but distanced herself after speaking with his family members in Cuba who had met with him in prison. Seguí said she subsequently received a threatening WhatsApp message with photos that appeared to show her husband dead about a month after the clash with the Border Guard. She said she didn’t know who sent the messages and changed her number shortly after.

“Conrado is no terrorist, that I can guarantee,” said Seguí. “He’s a family man. I don’t know how this happened.”

In Cuba, Galindo had been a dissident and was imprisoned for seven years, according to Seguí. But he said he had given up his political activism after immigrating to the United States.

“He was always against the Cuban government, but going [to Cuba]?” said Seguí. “Conrado didn’t go anywhere unless it was for work.”

Seguí said Galindo had never used a gun before, and the AI-generated Facebook photo of him with a gun was a joke (he had posted similar images of himself and Seguí dressed as police officers while holding a gun two weeks earlier).

Reached by phone in Nashville, Rodríguez’s girlfriend, Yeni, also rejected the terrorist label.

“He was a good person, a good father and partner,” said Yeni, who lived with him for five years. “He has always helped [others].”

She said last year he joined other Nashville residents in donating food to immigrant families afraid to leave their homes amid an ICE crackdown in the city.

She said Rodríguez neither supported nor opposed Trump, despite sharing the president’s hostility toward Cuba’s government.

No Help From the U.S.

The Cuban Border Guard informed the Miami-based Coast Guard’s Southeast District and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) liaison at the U.S. embassy in Havana within three hours of the firefight, according to First Colonel Ybey Daniel Carballo Pérez, the Border Guard’s chief of staff.

That evening, Carballo said, the USCG liaison, Luis García, was called in to the Interior Ministry’s International Relations Department house in Havana, where he was provided details on what had occurred, including El Tornado’s registration number and the identities of the people aboard.

According to Carballo, even as the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to bring about regime change in Cuba, the two maritime services have continued to cooperate behind the scenes.

“Every time a boat approaches Cuba en route to U.S. territory, we inform them in real time,” he said. “Even with the situation Cuba is enduring, with the maximum pressure imposed by the U.S. government on our country, the Cuban Border Guard has maintained the same level of cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard.”

During Barack Obama’s opening with Cuba and to a lesser extent under Joe Biden, the two countries held bilateral meetings to coordinate responses to irregular migration, human and drug trafficking, and search-and-rescue operations. After Trump returned to office, his administration discontinued the meetings, in line with Rubio’s confrontational approach toward Cuba.

“If there isn’t more cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard and other U.S. law enforcement, it’s due to the Trump administration’s policy and everything the State Department is doing to interfere in our relationship,” said Carballo.

Operational communication never stopped, but Cuban Border Guard officials complain their efforts are not reciprocated.

“For every three messages we send, we receive one in return,” said Carballo. “National security doesn’t flow in just one direction.”

Carballo expressed skepticism that the U.S. Coast Guard was not aware of the approach of El Tornado—pointing to the extensive U.S. surveillance deployed to target drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

“We didn’t receive a single report about that vessel coming our way, even though we all know that no recreational vessel is permitted to leave U.S. territory to come here to Cuba,” he said.

“Everything is monitored. And yet a speedboat of this kind, carrying ten people, shrapnel-filled explosives, Molotov cocktails and wartime supplies, a boat coming to sow grief here in Cuba and to kill people, was able to make the journey,” said Carballo.

On March 6, Cuba’s Interior Ministry sent the Trump administration a detailed report on the incident, along with six pages of questions about how the operation was organized and financed in the United States, according to Estrada.

More than three weeks passed, and they received no response.

Then, on March 31, Cuban Border Guard and Interior Ministry officials received an FBI delegation. Carballo said they spent two and a half days briefing the agents, who were joined by the Coast Guard liaison and the U.S. embassy’s security chief. They met at the International Relations house and traveled to Varadero to inspect El Tornado and the Coast Guard patrol boat involved in the confrontation. The agents also briefly met with the detainees and took their fingerprints and DNA samples.

Cuban authorities said they reiterated their questions about the operation’s organization and financing, but aside from information identifying where some of the men had purchased their weapons and the criminal history of two or three of the men, they’ve received no response.

• From left: First Colonel Ybey Daniel Carballo Pérez, the Border Guard's chief of staff; Colonel Francisco Estrada Portales, head of Interior Ministry investigations into crimes against national security; and Lieutenant Colonel Avelino Guilarte Paumier, the case's forensic ballistics expert.

“It’s been three months, and we haven’t received any information from them,” said Carballo in July.

The Coast Guard responded to a request for comment with a boilerplate statement about Operation Vigilant Sentry, which focuses on irregular maritime migration. It declined to comment on El Tornado, cooperation with its Cuban counterparts, or the investigation into the February 25 clash with the Cuban Border Guard, referring questions to the State Department.

The State Department, in turn, declined to comment and directed questions to the FBI. The FBI also declined to comment and referred questions to the State Department.

Ana Seguí said FBI agents questioned her at her home, while Yeni Rodríguez said people she believed were federal agents also came to question her. Maritza Lugo said the FBI has not contacted her.

Seems that I reached the limit of characters permitted in the post! Please check the rest of the article in: https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/inside-armed-incursion-florida-cuba

This will help anyone trying to understand why it happened and the type of people recruited for this anticommunist terrorism

Fuente -> https://t.me/cubadebate/115231

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53239871

Duration - 3:09

[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

While Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly this week that Cuba is “failing like never before,” world leaders from across the Global South stood with the island to denounce the U.S. economic war on Cuba.

Listen to what world leaders had to say about Cuba at the UN.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53240814

Duration - 2:37

[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Mobile cinemas first brought films to rural Cuba in the 1960s, when the revolutionary government sent trucks mounted with projectors across the island.

Today, Cuban documentary filmmaker Gloria Rolando Casamayor honors that tradition in Havana’s Colón neighborhood. Every weekend, she gathers her neighbors and sets up a portable projector for movie night, even when there is a blackout.

"The historical relationship between the Cuban people and the Italian people is truly heartfelt," said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, to representatives of the Italian project "Energy for Life, Let's Light Up the Light in Cuba," with whom he held a meeting on Thursday night.

The Head of State held an extensive dialogue with members of the European Parliament, members of the national parliament and representatives of civil society, members of the solidarity movement with Cuba in Italy who launched this project in mid-2024.

This is a campaign that aimed to raise funds for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels in various institutions across the country, and now a delegation of its promoters are on the island to exchange ideas with the Cuban people, their institutions and authorities.

Upon receiving them, Díaz-Canel described the people of Cuba and Italy as two nations distinguished "by the way we defend our homelands, by our cultures, by our way of being; we are joyful, we are optimistic, we do not give up, and we are dignified peoples, and I believe that is why we understand each other so well."

In reflecting on the emergence of this solidarity project with our country, he emphasized how representatives of Italian civil society and different organizations joined together to form a single caravan to come to Cuba, demonstrating – he added – “enormous sensitivity, enormous understanding of our problems, and also showing us enormous support.”

The president thanked them for carrying out the Energy for Life campaign, let's turn on the light in Cuba, whose benefits he has been able to verify in visits to the territories, such as in the House of Culture of El Cobre, where they told him –he shared– about everything they had contributed; help that has also been received –he pointed out– in health centers, cultural facilities and other institutions in various regions of the country.

“That you are present here today in Cuba, precisely at these difficult times,” Díaz-Canel Bermúdez reiterated, “is an expression of courage, because we know,” he said, “what it costs to come to Cuba today”; “the courage one must have to come to Cuba.”

“We,” he said, “are condemned. We are being put in the international spotlight, especially from a communications standpoint, as if we were the most terrible country in the universe. And this propaganda, this media construction, hasn’t been done by just anyone; it’s been done by the most powerful nation in the world, the one that controls the main media outlets, the social networks, and that is leading this entire campaign of media manipulation regarding Cuba.”

FOR CUBA, AN ESSENTIAL SOLIDARITY, OF PEOPLES

The Energy for Life project, Let's Turn on the Light in Cuba, has raised about $400,000 thanks to contributions from various organizations and individuals to install solar panels in various institutions, mainly in the east.

To date, facilities in the food industry, agriculture, and cultural and health institutions in Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Granma, and Havana have benefited.

The campaign was promoted by the Italian Cultural Recreational Association (ARCI) and its NGO dedicated to international work; the Italian National Confederation of Labor; the National Association of Italy-Cuba Friendship; the National Association of Partisans; trade union organizations and sectors of civil society.

As part of the initiative, several parliamentarians, MEPs, representatives of the organizations participating in the campaign and sectors of civil society are currently visiting the country to learn about the devastating effects of the blockade and evaluate the results of the campaign.

With the participation of colleagues Abel Prieto Jiménez, president of Casa de las Américas, and Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the exchange was moderated by Daniel Lorenzi, leader of ARCI.

Walter Massa, a member of ARCI, expressed his joy at being back in Cuba and witnessing once again the resilience and strength of the Cuban people. He reaffirmed his commitment that upon returning to Europe, specifically Italy, it is essential to continue promoting initiatives to help the Cuban people in their time of greatest need and to continue denouncing the aggression they suffer at the hands of the U.S. government.

"Ours," he pointed out, "is not a campaign solidarity, it is an essential solidarity, a solidarity of peoples, because Cuba," he affirmed, "is a symbol of resistance to capitalism, to that world we do not want to be. Cuba teaches us," he asserted, "that another world is possible, and that world must be a world of peace."

MEP Sandro Routelo, vice-president of the Euro-Latin Political Commission, said he was shaken by everything he has seen in Cuba as a result of the aggression of which it is a victim.

The Cuban people, he denounced, are the victims of a silent crime. We, he added, are children of the post-war era, a generation born for peace, and therefore Cuba and its people "are in our hearts" and reaffirm our commitment to the struggle and the need for a new international law to be established in the world, one that confronts and condemns the crimes being committed by figures like Trump and Netanyahu.

Today the world is facing a very aggressive situation, so I believe that an international progressive front is needed, that it is urgent, to confront this, Routelo argued.

Stefania Ascari, a member of the Italian parliament for the Five Star Movement, pointed out that the donations they have brought are only a small gesture towards the Cuban people, and being here – she affirmed – has allowed us to touch with our own hands what they are suffering, the economic, financial and commercial genocide of which they are being victims.

Cuba, Ascari pointed out, is suffering a criminal embargo, and we are leaving here with a very high responsibility and we are taking sides in favor of its people, a people of peace who want peace and who have the right to peace.

Laura Boldrini, a member of parliament for the Democratic Party and President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, commented that coming to Cuba is a duty for Italians because of what Cuba did for Italy during such a difficult time as the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the Cubans arrived in Lombardy, he recalled, the pandemic had brought our country to its knees, but the Cuban doctors gave us strength, brought us solidarity, and instilled confidence in our healthcare system to provide an effective response to COVID-19. Therefore, in these difficult times that Cuba is going through, we have a duty to reaffirm our solidarity with you, he affirmed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53175029

Duration - 3:30
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Four Democratic lawmakers traveled to Cuba in July to see the human impact of the U.S. economic war on Cuba firsthand.

During the trip, Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) visited Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital.

“We don’t have the resources to perform major surgeries,” Dr. Calixto Hernández told the delegation.

He said the hospital had performed 2,300 surgeries in the first four months of this year — 900 fewer than during the same period the year before.

“Does this make any sense?” Rep. Leger Fernández asked “A blockade that prevents basic materials for health?”

Rep. Leger Fernández also said that infant mortality has doubled since the Trump administration imposed an oil blockade on the island in January. “I can't imagine any American citizen wants to say, ‘I want babies to die,’” she said.

“We have to end this war on the Cuban people,” Rep. Ramirez said. “It’s not just immoral. It’s evil.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53174294

September 20, 2026 [weekly newsletter about Cuba from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

Even as the Trump administration has hammered Cuba with an oil blockade and a raft of unprecedented sanctions, the Cuban government continues to receive hundreds of deportees from the United States, honoring longstanding bilateral migration accords.

But not all deported Cubans are being sent back to the island.

This week, we speak with Yasmany Moreno, a Cuban man who lived in Miami for nearly a decade before the U.S. deported him to the Central African Republic.

Also:

• Cuba’s Black Hairstylists Embrace Their Roots
• Salazar Reverses Course on Trump Deportations
• Rubio Sanctions Cuban Nickel — Again
• Cuban Diplomat Urges Trump to End Economic War
• 45 Organizations Demand House Vote on Cuba Resolution
• U.S. Aid Reaches Cuba — In a Trickle

Video link -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2102792853428609026/vid/avc1/1280x720/ckilD5N63bHazgVi.mp4

Source -> https://shitter.thepixora.com/EmbHuaXin/status/2102792904859078701#m

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53127604

Duration - 1:11
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) confronted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week over his role in the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” Cuba strategy.

“You cut off all the oil to Cuba," she said. “You’re starving the families, you’re starving the children.”

Since May, Bessent’s Treasury has sanctioned Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company, fuel distributors and entities that import equipment needed to keep the island’s energy sector running.

“You don’t have to be cruel,” she told Bessent.

Watch Rep. Waters’s full remarks.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53126312

Duration - 34:59
[A video podcast about Cuba from the podcast team Cuba Analysis Podcasts]

What does economic warfare look like from inside a hospital?

Cuba Analysis speaks to doctors and patients at Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital about the impact of the US blockade on Cuba’s healthcare system.

Since 2019, successive US administrations have pursued a policy of ‘maximum pressure’ against Cuba. In 2026, Washington intensified those measures, including restrictions on fuel imports and aggressive extraterritorial sanctions. On 29 January and 1 May, President Trump issued executive orders declaring Cuba to be a threat to US national security.

Cubans are dying, not because of a lack of doctors but because of the US blockade. Since 2019, Cuba’s infant mortality rate has risen by 148%, while the survival rate for children with cancer has fallen from 85% to 65%. More than 100,000 Cubans are waiting for surgery, including over 12,000 children. Treatments and surgeries are being delayed; ageing equipment cannot be repaired or replaced; and more than 7,000 shipping containers carrying medical supplies, food, and solar panels are stranded at foreign ports because of the threat of US sanctions and tariffs. Cuba’s latest report to the UN General Assembly calculates that the US blockade has cost the island over $8 billion just between March 2025 and February 2026.

The doctors we interview explain what those figures means in practice. A radio-oncologist describes reducing daily treatments from 250 patients to just 30, with many travelling 200 kilometres for radiotherapy. A cardiologist speaks about patients waiting years for pacemakers. A nephrologist reports that one-third of the hospital’s haemodialysis machines are out of service. A dialysis patient describes the extraordinary efforts the doctors make to find alternatives when essential supplies are unavailable. We also hear about the psychological toll of the threat of US military action, and the exhausting daily struggle with electricity blackouts, the lack of transport, and rising prices.

Trump and Rubio claim to be acting in the interests of the Cuban people, but their economic warfare is a form of collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. Recently, Rubio admitted the real motivations behind the policy: ‘Every time they create a new mechanism in which they try to get out of the noose, we just close it off.’

The doctors in this report expose the healthcare costs of that policy.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53091258

Duration - 1:06
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

At the UN General Assembly this morning, Donald Trump said Cuba was a “failed state” that “will fall,” and immediately after accused the island of providing a haven for foreign adversaries to “threaten America” and cultivating ties with “subversive groups” like Communist Party USA, Antifa and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Trump referenced the 100-page State Department report released in July that accused Cuba of influencing virtually every major progressive movement, organization, protest and activist in the United States over the last 65 years. (Even Belly of the Beast was mentioned in the report).

He also said Secretary of State Marco Rubio “is deep into negotiations with Cuba,” even though Cuban officials have said there is no progress in talks with the Trump administration due to unrelenting U.S. hostility.

Cuba’s UN delegation walked out while Trump spoke.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53090329

Duration - 2:04
[weekly newsletter about Cuba from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

In an interview with PBS, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío reiterated there has been “no progress” in talks between the Trump administration and the Cuban government due to unrelenting U.S. hostility.

He said U.S. policy is “collective punishment” meant to inflict economic pain on the Cuban people.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53050640

Sept. 10, 2026
[weekly newsletter about Cuba from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

Cuba’s government says the U.S. embargo caused more than $8 billion in damage in a single year.

Its latest report to the United Nations describes surgeons working under the light of a cell phone, a mother worrying about her son’s cancer treatment being interrupted and children waiting for vaccines that are stuck in warehouses.

This week, we look at how the U.S. government's economic war on Cuba affects everyday life on the island.

Also:

• A Senate Candidate Visits Cuba — and Speaks Out
• A Mother Builds the Workplace Her Son Couldn’t Find
• Rubio Sanctions Cuban Bank, Oil and Mining Companies
• US Warns of Health Crisis Its Policies Created

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53005249

September 17, 2026

Helen Yaffe, professor of Latin American Political Economy at Glasgow University and author of We Are Cuba! How A Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, also joined the meeting online. She described in detail the “tightrope” Cuba is walking with the 176 economic reforms it is undertaking, emphasizing that they must be seen in the context of Cuba as a small island that is dependent on trade. The Cubans also need capital for infrastructure and social welfare, she added.

Yaffe said the new measures “are referred to quite rightly as liberalizing reforms. They are an economic imperative, but they do constitute a political risk.” The challenge, she emphasized, is how to get foreign capital without undermining sovereignty, or the project of building socialism. “Cubans are not for restoring capitalism!” she declared.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/52959848

The U.S. says its sanctions are not aimed at depriving Cuba of essential goods. Thousands of stranded shipping containers tell a different story.

Sept. 17, 2026
from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[shareable 30-day gift article - will get a prompt to sign up for limited-access free account]

Thousands of containers filled with food, medicine and other goods bound for Cuba have been stranded throughout the Caribbean since two shipping giants stopped deliveries to avoid tough U.S. sanctions, according to diplomats, Cuban officials, merchants and others involved in the imports.

The containers stranded in various ports include humanitarian aid, from solar panels to medication to colostomy bags. Dozens of containers of aid purchased by different United Nations agencies are among them.

U.S. sanctions have also hobbled shipments by air, and forced the World Health Organization to scrap planned deliveries of cancer drugs.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/52877287

Released 9/16 Duration - 3:55
[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

The 4th edition of “Lo Llevamos Rizo,” only natural Afro hair pageant, brought together Cuban stylists and their clients to celebrate Black beauty, identity and roots.

For the entrepreneurs involved, it’s a chance to connect despite the challenges of running import-dependent businesses while the U.S. wages economic war on the island.

The event pushes back against decades of beauty standards that treated natural Black hair as something to be fixed or hidden.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/52876850

Duration - 0:22

[a video on Peertube about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

“Trying to starve them.”

That's how Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) describes U.S. policy toward Cuba.

During an interview on CNN’s Inside Politics, Giménez said the U.S. wants to “put the squeeze” on Cuba and compares the approach to the U.S. strategy against Iran — where the U.S. has carried out thousands of airstrikes since February.

“Eventually what I think we need to do is leave all options on the table,” he said.