Anti-regime activists in Canada accuse Cuba of using YouTube channel to intimidate them
Cuban-Canadians say they're being accused of drug trafficking by an anonymous account linked to state security
Thirteen Montrealers say they've been targeted by a campaign of harassment launched by the Cuban government to keep them from protesting against one-party rule on the island.
A social media account which — according to a Cuban defector — is being run by Cuba's state security has been spreading detailed allegations against the 13 men accusing them of trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Canada.
Carlos Andrades said he's one of them. On March 21, he arrived in his native Havana for a visit with his 95-year-old mother. Travelling with him were his Canadian-born daughters and grandson.
Andrades said he has long been active in opposition circles and has been prevented from entering Cuba on previous occasions. He said he travelled on this occasion with some trepidation.
"I have a 95-year-old mother, so I have to go," he said.
Soon after arriving, Andrades said, he was visited at his hotel by a woman in military uniform who gave him a piece of paper ordering him to present himself for an interview at a detention centre operated by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.
His interrogation — by a man who introduced himself as Col. Luis Morales — was videotaped and would shortly be used as one of the elements in an elaborate allegation against him and a dozen fellow Cuban-Canadian dissidents.
Andrades said the interrogators showed him evidence that he had participated in demonstrations and posted comments critical of Communist Party rule. Under new Cuban laws, online criticism can be prosecuted as cyber-terrorism.
"They show you the picture and you have done this, and you have done this. So you are against the wall because you are not in Canada," he said. "Canada cannot protect you in any way."
Andrades said the interrogators also suggested that he was engaged in drug trafficking in order to finance the operations of anti-government YouTubers. They named one in particular: a Montreal-based anti-regime YouTube channel with nearly 90,000 followers.
The arrival of the internet in Cuba has focused the Cuban government's attention on the threat posed by online influencers in exile. It appears to have chosen to strike back using an online weapon — YouTube.
El Guerrero cubano (the "Cuban warrior") is a YouTube account that broadcasts attacks on enemies of the Cuban Communist Party, sometimes by making use of video of interrogations by Cuban state security.
The person behind the Guerrero account does not show their face in the videos. A recent Cuban government defector has identified the individual behind the account as Col. Pedro Orlando Martínez, head of the political wing of Cuba's National Revolutionary Police.
Andrades said that after his interview, he was allowed to leave Cuba with his daughters, much to his relief. But the interview convinced him that he could not risk returning.
"I knew from the very beginning — I get inside the airplane, that was my last last trip to Cuba," he said. "And I had to say 'bye to my mother. It was not easy."
Three weeks after Andrades returned to Canada, the Guerrero cubano account uploaded its first video revealing details of what it claimed is "a network of drug traffickers that feeds the counter-revolution in Canada."
The videos posted include several clips of Andrades's interrogation. In none of them does he say anything incriminating about drugs, either about himself or anyone else.
In the narration accompanying the first video, the Guerrero claims he has more damning footage from the interview that he will release at a later date. A second video, released two weeks after the first, showed more interrogation clips but still did not include any confessions by Andrades regarding involvement with drug trafficking or allegations against anyone else.
In the videos, the Guerrero cubano accuses 13 Montrealers by name of using a food import business belonging to one of the men to smuggle cocaine bought from a Colombian family network called the Solazars. The account claims the men used another man's trucking company to distribute the drug throughout central Canada, New York and New Jersey.
The money, the videos claim, is to be used for terrorist attacks against Cuba.
"They are poisoning and destroying the Canadian population, especially the youth," says the narration for one El Guerrero video. Over photo images of the Cuban-Canadians meeting with Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, the narration accuses them of "openly defying the current government of Canada, especially its prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
"They need the Conservatives to come to power in Canada."
Andrades said his Cuban interrogator questioned him about his group's meetings with Conservatives, described Polievre as "another Trump" and told him that Havana preferred to see Trudeau remain in power.
CBC News asked the Cuban embassy about the case but did not receive a response. Public Safety Canada and Global Affairs Canada also did not respond to inquiries about the matter.
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