The Assembly of Cuban Resistance, a coalition of Cuban exile and human rights groups, is demanding the international community condemn the Cuban government for reportedly backing Russia in its war against Ukraine by helping recruit young Cuban men to fight in the conflict.
The Cuban government strongly denies the claim and insists it is in fact cracking down on a ring that was trafficking Cuban mercenaries.
The Assembly is planning to hold a news conference on Thursday in Miami to call attention to the Cuban government's alleged ctions. It comes only days after Cuba’s Foreign Ministry announced it had disrupted a scheme in Russia to recruit Cuban citizens to fight in Ukraine and rejected allegations it was supporting Russia versus Ukraine.
In a statement issued Monday and publishedin the Communist Party newspaper Granma, Cuban officials denied any involvement with Russia and, without any specific details, said it had begun prosecuting those suspected of being involved in the recruitment of Cubans.
"Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine," according to the ministry statement. "It is acting and it will firmly act against those who within the national territory participate in any form of human trafficking for mercenarism or recruitment purposes so that Cuban citizens may raise weapons against any country."
They said the alleged “human trafficking network” involved Cubans, both in Russia and on the island.
[On Friday, Cuban government officials said 17 people had been arrested in connection with the trafficking network, though none were identified, according to Reuters. If convicted, the suspects could be sentenced to 30 years in prison or given the death penalty.]
READ MORE: Cuba says it dismantled human trafficking ring recruiting for Russia's war in Ukraine
The statement followed the broadcast on YouTube of a video interview of two young Cuban men in Russia by Alain Lambert Sánchez, a Cuban influencer known as Alain Paparazzi Cubano, according to the Miami Herald.
They said said they were recruited in Cuba to work in Russia for supposed well-paid construction jobs but ended up on the frontlines of the battlefields with other soldiers. They became ill and were sent to a series of hospitals for treatment. In the interview from an unidentified hospital or clinic, the two said Russian authorities confiscated their passports. The two young men asked for help to return to Cuba, saying they have been threatened with prison if they leave the country.
America TeVe, the Miami−based Spanish−language network, broadcast a telephone video interview from Cuba with the mother of one of the young men who said her 19-year-old son was duped into traveling to Russia for work — not to be a soldier. "They were deceived," she said in Spanish.
The New York Times, citing The Moscow Times, reported that a social media account under the name of Elena Shuvalova had posted ads in a Facebook group called “Cubans in Moscow” offering a one-year contract with the Russian Army, and had nearly 76,000 members. The Cuban Foreign Ministry's statement did made no mention of the Facebook group.
Experts on Cuba said it was almost impossible that the Cuban government was unaware of the human trafficking ring.
“Cuba is a police state, and they proudly boast that," Chris Simmons, a former U.S. counterintelligence officer whose expertise is Cuban espionage, told NPR.
"The idea that someone could be running a mercenary ring without the government's knowledge is ludicrous.”
“It's absolutely impossible for major criminal enterprises to exist without the Cuban government's knowledge and involvement," he said.
“This is just the latest in a long series of criminal enterprises run by the Cuban government,” he added. “And any time they've gotten caught, historically, their first act is to deny it and then imprison some individuals as proof that they had no knowledge.”
Before the latest conflict, Cuba viewed Ukraine and Russia as allies. It has had an extensive relationship with Moscow since the 1960s, when it joined the bloc of socialist countries led by the then Soviet Union.
Last November, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow with Miguel Díaz-Canel, his Cuban counterpart. The two leaders unveiled a monument to Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and hailed the “traditional friendship” between their nations.
Thursday’s press conference organized by Assembly of Cuban Resistance is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the headquarters of Brigade 2506, 1821 SW 9th Street, Miami.
NPR contributed to this story.
