2023-09-08 12:25:39
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, authorities from the Ministry of the Interior 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 the war and recruiting others already settled in the Eurasian country. This Thursday, the person in charge of the investigation, César Rodríguez, indicated on national television that “17 people have been arrested so far”, without detailing their nationalities.
He specified that one of them “is the internal organizer of these activities” and two other subjects were those who “look for Cubans, national people interested in enlisting” for the war.
According to the Cubadebate news portal, 14 more people confessed that they had voluntarily joined the operation in exchange for Russian residency and monetary compensation.
For his part, another official from the Attorney General’s Office indicated in the televised report that the judicial authorities are considering accusing them of the crimes of “human trafficking, mercenarism (and) hostile acts in a foreign State,” which could imply sentences of 30 years, life imprisonment and even death penalty.
The state news program also presented the testimony of the father of two young men who were recruited in the central province of Santa Clara. One of them did not manage to leave the island and is being investigated, while the other left a month and a half ago.
“I feel a little affected because I have no knowledge of him, if he is alive, if he is working,” said Pedro Roberto Camuza, father of two young men recruited.
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.
Last week, media outlets in Miami, in the United States, reported the case of two 19-year-old young men who claimed to have been recruited under deception by people who contacted them on Facebook to work as bricklayers 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.
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