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The chancellor of the Cuban regime, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, assured that the war declared by the U.S. government against drug trafficking is a farce.
The statements are framed within a post on X where the official refers to Trump's pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in a federal prison in West Virginia.
"He intends to use it to justify his costly extraordinary naval deployment in the Caribbean and the threat of military aggression to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela," said the minister.
"It evidences the complicity of the U.S. government and its agencies with the vast drug market that kills hundreds of thousands of citizens of that nation," he accused.
The belligerent tone of the regime's official comes after this week Hugo Armando “El Pollo” Carvajal, former director of Military Intelligence in Venezuela, outlined Cuba's key role in the conception of the Cartel of the Suns and other regional criminal structures.
Carvajal, a central figure in the security apparatus of chavismo for over a decade, was extradited from Spain in 2023 and pleaded guilty in June 2025 before a U.S. federal court to conspiracy for drug trafficking and support for terrorist groups.
The letter, according to her lawyer Robert Feitel, a former prosecutor with the Department of Justice, seeks not only to cooperate with U.S. justice but also to warn about the extent of the criminal network that, he claims, has been led and sustained by the regimes of Venezuela and Cuba.
Cuba: strategic brain of the Cartel of the Suns
One of Carvajal's most compelling assertions is the role of Cuba in the genesis of drug trafficking strategy for geopolitical purposes.
"This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s," he wrote.
According to the former head of intelligence, it was Havana that proposed using cocaine as a weapon to weaken the United States, a deliberate policy executed by chavismo with the support of FARC, ELN, Hezbollah, and Cuban intelligence agents.
The retired major general claims that Cuban intelligence revealed to him "its networks within their naval bases on the East Coast. They boasted of having sent thousands of spies over decades, some of whom are now career politicians."
It goes even further, stating that U.S. diplomats and agents were bribed to assist the regimes of Chávez and Maduro, operating as double agents in favor of Cuba and Venezuela.
"Some remain active to this day," he warned.
The Cuban regime defends itself
On Thursday, the Cuban government rejected any connection with drug trafficking in an unusual press conference aimed at mitigating the political fallout from the explosive revelations made by the former intelligence chief of Nicolás Maduro.
Moreover, the official statements come at a time of intense regional tension and increasing U.S. military pressure in the Caribbean.
At the press conference held at the International Press Center, senior officials from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the Ministry of Justice asserted that Cuba "is neither a producing nor a transit country for drugs." They emphasized the regime's policy of "zero tolerance" and highlighted that Havana has maintained active cooperation with Washington since 2016 to combat drug trafficking.
The agency EFE, which covered the meeting, reported that the Cuban officials emphasized even the real-time information exchange with the U.S. Coast Guard.
But the message was not only aimed at defending the international image of the government. It was also a direct attack against the United States. Colonel Juan Carlos Poey, head of the Antidrug Combat Body of MININT, described the current U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean, focused on Venezuela, as “a serious threat to the security and sovereignty” of Cuba.
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