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The Spanish propagandist Ana Hurtado Martínez, known for her defense of the Cuban regime and her active presence at official events on the island, once again spread misleading information on her social media.
This time, he posted an image of a graffiti-covered train with the name of Fidel Castro at the France station in Barcelona, claiming it was a recent tribute to the deceased Cuban dictator.
“Good morning. This is how one of the trains looks at the França Station in Barcelona. ¡Fidel, world leader!”, wrote this Tuesday the contributor from the official outlet Cubadebate, sharing some photos of the supposed recent tribute to the Cuban dictator.
However, the photo in question dates back to November 2016, when Castro's death led to a series of exaltation events by leftist groups in Spain.
The graffiti in question, which stated "Fidel Castro. Forever, commander," was executed on a Renfe train car and was claimed at the time by Ítaca, a Catalan independentist organization with a communist orientation.
The news of this vandalistic act was covered at the time by El Confidencial Digital, confirming that it is not a current event, but rather an image from nearly a decade ago that Hurtado Martínez tried to pass off as recent.
An event about the "media war" amidst its manipulation
This attempt at informational manipulation by Hurtado Martínez occurs within the context of his participation in the IV International Patria Colloquium, an event organized in Havana with the supposed aim of discussing the impact of misinformation and the role of digital media in shaping power.
Paradoxically, while the forum denounces "fake news" and the "media war" waged by independent press, one of its most prominent figures is caught spreading false information.
The Colloquium, sponsored by the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) and other official institutions, has included the attendance of academics, communicators, and political figures from the so-called "Global South," who have debated communication strategies of the left in response to what they term the media hegemony of the West.
However, cases like that of Hurtado Martínez show that many of these strategies involve the manipulation of facts and the decontextualization of images to reinforce narratives in favor of the Cuban regime.
A recurring pattern of misinformation
This is not the first time that Hurtado Martínez has used disinformation tactics to promote the image of the Cuban regime. On multiple occasions, she has repeated official narratives without verifying sources or has attacked independent journalists and Cuban activists who denounce repression on the island.
Their presence at events such as the Patria Colloquium reinforces the idea that these types of gatherings are not aimed at the pursuit of truth or a real debate about the role of the media, but rather at legitimizing Cuban official propaganda.
While the Cuban regime and its allies denounce supposed media campaigns against them, their most visible spokespeople resort to the falsification of facts to construct their own narrative. This episode once again highlights the double standards with which the regime's defenders operate in the digital realm.
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