At least 17 people have been detained in Cuba for their alleged relationship with a trafficking network that operates from Russia to recruit people to participate in the war in Ukraine, Interior Ministry authorities reported on Thursday.
The government reported on Monday that the Ministry of the Interior was working to dismantle a human trafficking network dedicated to transferring islanders to war and recruiting others already based in the Eurasian country.
This Thursday, the person in charge of the investigation, César Rodríguez, indicated that “17 people have been arrested so far”, without specifying their nationalities.
He specified that one of them “is the internal organizer of these activities” and two other subjects were the ones “looking for Cubans, national people interested in enlisting” for the war.
For his part, another official from the Attorney General’s Office indicated that the judicial authorities are considering accusing them for the crimes of “trafficking in persons, mercenarism (and) hostile acts in a foreign State”, which could imply sentences of 30 years, life imprisonment and even death penalty.
The state news also presented the testimony of the father of two young men who were recruited in the central province of Santa Clara. One of them failed to leave the island and is being investigated, while the other left a month and a half ago.
“I feel a bit affected because I don’t know about him, if he’s alive, if he’s working,” said Pedro Roberto Camuza, father of two young recruits.
For his part, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on Monday in a message on his X network account, formerly Twitter, that the government “acts with the force of the law” against these operations.
Media outlets in Miami, in the United States, reported last week the case of two 19-year-olds who claimed to have been recruited under deceit by people who contacted them via Facebook to work as masons on construction sites in Ukraine, along with to the Russian army. They also presented other testimonies from Cubans who said they were hired by the Russian armed forces.
The Cuban government has categorically rejected any complicity in these actions.