Cuban soldiers in Venezuela, impunity for Sandro Castro, police violence and ‘el químico’ (the chemical)
14ymedio, Havana, 10 February 2025 — Donald Trump’s invasion of Cuba is just around the corner. The rumor – with endless comments, reactions and conspiracy theories – has been repeated hundreds of times in January. The regime’s tension in the face of hostile movements from the North was the justification, some argue, for calling the Bastion exercise when families were still mourning the deaths of 13 soldiers in an arsenal in Holguín.
The Bastion is believed by its users to have two undeclared objectives. Firstly, to boost the morale of the Armed Forces with a national deployment of troops and weapons. Thus, rumors claim, the tragedy of Melones – where an explosion of obsolete war material caused the death of officers and recruits at the beginning of January – would be overshadowed by the mobilization.
The second objective – which was increasingly repeated on social media as the Trump administration announced measures affecting the finances of the Cuban Army – was the relocation of weapons, particularly tanks and anti-aircraft artillery from Russia, to key points and “aimed at Florida.”
It was even said that the explosion in Melones occurred during one of these manipulations of Russian weapons.
It was even said that the explosion in Melones occurred during one of those manipulations of Russian weapons, in this case SA-16 Gimlet missiles supposedly sent by Vladimir Putin as a military guarantee against a surprise attack by Washington. On the other hand, the official press also offered something to talk about when it insisted, in each report on the Bastion, that emphasis had been placed on the anti-aircraft preparation of the military, since in the Cuban imagination any US invasion will be accompanied by bombings from the sky.
Any confrontation between Cuba and the US has – according to rumors – a clear winner, and it is not Miguel Díaz-Canel. The Cuban president — who did not take off his olive green uniform until the Bastion was finished — hinted that the scenario of an attack was still “real” and many on-line commentators alluded to an “escape plan approved by Raúl Castro.” Where? The usual assumptions point to Caracas and Moscow as asylum destinations. They add that the entire top brass of the regime would travel with Díaz-Canel.
There has been much speculation about the real extent of Trump’s interest in Cuba. In mid-January, lists of alleged measures that the Republican would take against the Cuban regime were circulated. Armed intervention and economic suffocation were the common factors in these White House “plans.” Some even set a date for the attack: January 30.
If January 20 – the date of Trump’s inauguration – was relevant for Cuba, the 10th was no less so, when Nicolás Maduro received the presidential sash. As occurred during the July elections in Venezuela, there were many rumors circulating about the island’s military interference in Caracas.
It was said that Havana had sent hundreds of soldiers to the Venezuelan capital to support the inauguration and that Cuban State Security was supervising the entire process. In addition, another rumor claimed that the entire island was militarized in view of the inauguration and that internet service had been cut off in many places since January 8.
Rumors about the activities of Sandro Castro, Fidel Castro’s grandson, have increased since he celebrated his birthday in Havana. He is now credited with having turned one of the Castro family’s protocol houses into the warehouse for his bar, EFE. He supposedly uses that residence for business dealings because it is off the police radar and agents are prohibited from investigating the place. However, another rumor claims that an officer stopped Sandro Castro for speeding. When he showed him his documents, the policeman – they say – had to let him go without a ticket.
Sandro Castro allegedly uses that residence to negotiate because it is off the police radar and officers are prohibited from investigating the place.
Violence and crisis continue to be part of the series of recurring rumors about Cuba. The police found a body in San Miguel del Padrón’s river, according to one rumor. Others report the death of an eight-year-old boy in Havana due to a lack of ambulances and that of a 19-year-old in Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey, without specifying the cause of death.
A young man was brutally beaten by police in Matanzas, according to a complaint. Photos and videos were shared of the beating by the officers, who ended up leaving the young man on the ground. He had allegedly not been given medical attention at the hospital in the municipality of Colón and began to protest. The officers arrived to quell his protest and attacked him. Another video shows a police officer firing into the air during an operation in Santa Clara.
Also, consumption of the drug of the moment in Cuba known as el químico (the chemical) is also still common. In a matter of months, images of addicts in full “ecstasy” have multiplied. In schools, the situation has reached alarming levels and a secret report from the Provincial Education Department in Camagüey, cited by a user, describes it with two unequivocal words: “total chaos.”
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