Cuban mother visits her son in Military Service and four hours later she is informed of his death.

Adrián Rodríguez García, 19 years old, died while serving the Mandatory Military Service in Cuba. The young man, originally from Santa Clara, was supposed to finish that stage in the Armed Forces by early December 2023, but the officers of the Manuelita unit delayed him, and on December 31 he was still on guard duty. That day, his mother went to see him and brought him food because it was New Year's Eve. He told her he had four or five days at most left to complete his service. She returned home, and four hours later she received a call saying that her son had died.

The young man was run over outside the military unit. The officers let him out, and a drunk driver, without a driver's license, hit him and instead of helping him, "left him lying there." "They fled the scene," says a person close to the young man.

The driver who hit him was arrested six days later while trying to leave the country. "There was an anonymous tip," the same source indicates.

The young man's environment holds the military responsible for letting him go out on the night of December 31, knowing how dangerous the streets are, especially on a day like that. However, in the Unit, they wash their hands of it. None of the officials in charge of young people undergoing Military Service have been investigated for this reason.

"I ask the military why they let him go out, and they say that he wanted to go out," is the only explanation that the family of the deceased receives when they complain that if he had not been allowed to spend the night outside the Unit or if he had been discharged from Service when it was due, Adrián Rodríguez would be alive.

Eight months later, there has been no trial for the fatal hit-and-run of the young man, nor has there been an investigation into the responsibility that the military who allowed him to leave the Unit may bear in the case. "They cleaned themselves up," adds the circle of the deceased young man, who claims to be "dead in life, while the military are at the beach."

"We thought he was in the Las Minas penitentiary, serving his sentence, and they let him out and now he is dead," laments the family of the young man who passed away, who does not understand why no military personnel stayed in charge of the boys that night.

Adrián Rodríguez García did not have a girlfriend when he died. "He was a lovely boy full of dreams," and his life changed when he started in the Military Service. According to those close to him, the young man had to undergo emergency surgery for appendicitis, and "four months after the surgery, the officers sat on top of him and made him do push-ups."

He was a boy, adds the environment, who "was disliked because he was a very active child and the head of the Unit always punished him." "The boy always took his Bible everywhere because he was very devout."

A close relative wonders why the mother didn’t take him the day she went to see him because he had already finished the Service and they had him there punished. "We thought there were only four or five days left to end that horror movie. Now we are good for nothing."

Many young Cubans have lost their lives while serving in the military over the past year. The latest case was that of Flavio Alonso Piedra, 20 years old. He turned 21 on August 24 and was buried last Thursday. He was found kneeling, with his neck back and eyes wide open. He had an AKM in his hands, but in the Unit, they say he hanged himself with his belt. Those close to the young man do not believe the official version. The police are investigating what happened.

In Villa Clara, this month, there has been great outrage among families of young people who are doing Military Service over the fact that their children are being forced to donate blood and threatened with having to do more night shifts if they refuse.

In June, a young man who was serving in the military in Santa Clara committed suicide while being forcibly transferred to Matanzas. People close to the deceased young man claim that despite having "papers" that advised against his enlistment in the military due to psychological issues, he was summoned to serve and transferred from Santa Clara to Matanzas to work for six months in construction. During the journey, he informed his girlfriend.