A trafficking network to recruit Cubans who participate “in war operations in Ukraine” has been identified by the authorities of the Caribbean island, who have initiated criminal proceedings against the people involved in this activity, as reported this Monday by the Foreign Ministry.
The Ministry of the Interior “works on the neutralization and dismantling of a human trafficking network operating from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has assured that the Cuban government “acts with the force of the law” against these operations, in a message on his account on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
The Foreign Ministry indicated that it has initiated “criminal proceedings against people involved in these activities,” underlining its clear rejection of “mercenarism.”
Clarified that Cuba is not part of the war conflict in Ukraine and that it will act vigorously against those from its territory who participate in any form of human trafficking for the purposes of recruitment or mercenarism so that its citizens take up arms against any country.
Young men tricked into going to war
Last Friday, the Miami newspaper ‘América TeVe’ published the testimonies of two young people who said they had been deceived by people who contacted them on Facebook to work as bricklayers on construction sites in Ukraine alongside the Russian army.
“Please help us, try to get us out of here as quickly as possible because we are afraid,” says one of the 19-year-olds in a video published by the media on its website.
‘América TeVe’ said that the young people sent this message from a bus in which they were being transported from Ukraine with Russian soldiers to the Russian city of Riazan.
«We can’t sleep because we don’t know if they can come in at any moment. to do something to us,” said another of the young people. They also reported having been beaten.
This medium presented the anonymous audio testimony of another Cuban who also said he had signed a contract of this type, as well as that of a fourth person who said he had signed the agreement while living in Russia.
«A shorter Cuban hired from the Russian army»
“I am another Cuban who is here under contract with the Russian armed forces,” a man told ‘América TeVe’ under anonymity.
The latter pointed out that, just as other of his compatriots, got ready to legalize his situation in the Eurasian nation.
By reiterating its categorical rejection of any complicity in these actions, the Foreign Ministry warned that “enemies of Cuba promote distorted information that seeks to tarnish the image of the country.”
Relations between Moscow and Havana
Since last year, Moscow and Havana have strengthened their relations in political and diplomatic terms, while representatives of Vladimir Putin’s government have expressed their willingness to support Cuba in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the implosion of the Soviet bloc in 1991.
At the end of 2022, the president Miguel Díaz-Canel met with Putin in Moscow and this year, delegations of businessmen and officials have visited both countries.
One of these tours was carried out in June by the Cuban Minister of Defense, Álvaro López Miera, who was received by his counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
“Russia plans to jointly develop a series of projects in the military-technical field with Cuba,” Shoigu told López Miera, in their conversations at the Ministry of Defense, as published then in the official newspaper Granma.
