It is said that the Cuban repressors detected in the US will be sent to special prisons in El Salvador.
14ymedio, Havana, 7 April 2025 — Having lost the battle against poverty in real life, Miguel Díaz-Canel has decided to eradicate it in cyberspace. At least that’s what one of the most persistent rumors about Cuba during the month of March claims, alluding to a supposed executive order by the president to block terms like “hunger” “freedom ,” “poverty,” and “blackout” on instant messaging.
These words—and many others, including insults to the government and diatribes against the country’s situation—define the island’s vocabulary, and although there is no record of an order in place to remove them from the digital sphere, the regime has blocked them before, during times of particular political and social tension.
The most recent example: the protests of 11 July 2021, during which the State telecommunications entity Etecsa systematically vetoed any messages with problematic words or containing a possible call to march against the regime. At that time, “experiments” proliferated, demonstrating that if a text message containing the words “pa la calle” [to the streets] or “libertad” [freedom] was typed and sent from a mobile phone , the notification never reached the recipient’s screen.
Without a doubt, the Cuban panorama is once again one of notable tension, and not only because of what is happening within the borders, but also because of the news arriving from the other shore.
Without a doubt, the Cuban situation is once again marked by tension, not only because of what’s happening within its borders, but also because of the news coming from the other shore. What is happening in Washington, where Donald Trump generates countless headlines every day, is also fueling rumors about the island.
The mass deportations of migrants to El Salvador’s prisons—the vast majority of whom are criminals and gang members, but also include innocent people—has led to the hypothesis that Cuban repressors and counterintelligence agents in the United States will also be identified, detained, and sent to Nayib Bukele’s prisons.
That Havana and Washington are secretly in talks has also been part of the conspiracy theories since January 20, when Trump took office. According to some reports, there have been communications between the Oval Office and Raúl Castro and Nicolás Maduro, with unspecified threats if Trump intensifies economic sanctions against these regimes.
According to many online commenters, politicians from both countries hold constant meetings to negotiate the delicate balance between what the White House says it will do against the Cuban regime and what it actually plans to do.
Others are already speaking of a back-and-forth between the two governments. One rumor accuses Miguel Díaz-Canel of organizing a drug trafficking operation to the United States. Supposedly, several small planes that landed in that country had departed from Holguín the day before, and had the approval of the president—who was in that province at the time of takeoff—to transport narcotics and alter their records.
Supposedly, several small planes that landed in that country had departed from Holguín the day before, and had the approval of the president.
For many, Trump represents the beginning of the end of the Cuban regime, and some assume that before he leaves the White House, what many rumors have been predicting for years—despite his public “resurrections”—will happen: the death of Raúl Castro. Castro’s transfer to the Cimeq military hospital, “in extremely serious condition,” was one of the rumors circulating this month.
Constant rumors continue about the deteriorating situation on the island. In the face of police inaction—a phenomenon denounced by numerous internet users—reports of scenes where perpetrators take the law into their own hands are increasing. The capture of a bicycle and purse thief, allegedly accused of burglary in Havana, was one such complaint.
It was also reported that the warehouse manager at the Noris Urban Nursing Home in Holguín is stealing food intended for the elderly there, who are particularly affected by hunger and the lack of supplies. Another rumor alleges the loss of wages for Community Services workers in Santiago de Cuba. Another, in the same province, reports that management at Laboratorios Oriente has withheld workers’ wages following the theft of a gas cylinder there.
Some of these commentaries become news after being verified by the independent press. Others, however, remain rumors, but are powerful indicators of the state of tension and anxiety in which Cubans live.
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