Mother of young Cuban who died in the Russian war speaks: "Where is my son's body"

The mother of the young Cuban who died last Friday in Ukraine after being recruited by Russia for the war demanded that the authorities hand over her son's body to her.

In statements to the journalistMario Vallejo The woman claims that she has written to several authorities and they have not told her where the body is.Raibel Palacio Herrera, just 21 years old, who died on Friday on a battlefield in the city of Kherson after a Ukrainian drone attack.

Both she and her daughter-in-law are under the effects of sedative medications, desperate and without news of the procedures for the repatriation of the body, she said through tears.

"I am desperate because they are not giving me an answer about my son's body, at 2 am (a manager named) Gilberto Herrera wrote to me to ask for some information and tell me that they were channeling the situation to send the body to Cuba, and what I want Give me an answer because I'm desperate," she said.

"I want to know where they are keeping my son because they told me that they were going to send me the body and we don't see anything clear," he stressed.

The young man, father of two little girls, was recruited in November 2023 by the Russian government to supposedly build trenches on the battlefield against Ukraine; But upon arriving at the scene, the victim told his family in Cuba that they had been deceived.

"These people are scamming us. We thought one thing and another came out," said Palacio Herrera through an audio message sent to his wife, with whom he has two girls, one of them a newborn whom he never met.

In September of last year, it was revealed thanks to complaints from relatives that Russia was recruiting young people from the island and sending them to the battle front in Ukraine.

The Havana regime said that it did not support mercenarism and committed to dismantling an alleged smuggling network that involved several Cuban officials and diplomats; but recruitments have continued as demonstrated by the case of Palacio Herrera, who was recruited in November.

Last September, a Russian officer confirmed, in statements on condition of anonymity, that many Cubans are on the front lines as part of international battalions fighting in the war in Ukraine.

This information was corroborated to the aforementioned media by a Spanish translator who worked with Cuban emigration, who confirmed that there were many Cubans recruited by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"It is possible that Cuban citizens are being recruited due to cost considerations, as they are simply cheaper," said another Russian official interviewed in September by The Intercept.

"In addition to salaries, the Russian government is obliged to provide additional compensation in the event of injury or death of its citizens. However, this responsibility does not extend to Cuban citizens. When you come here in search of financial gain, your death It's your nightmare," he concluded.

On January 10, the death of another Cuban enlisted in the Russian army also emerged. It was about the young boxerYansiel Morejón, 26 years old, another victim of human trafficking between Havana and Moscow.