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The former spy and current coordinator of the CDR has done it again. Gerardo Hernández Nordelo posted an unrelated image, taken in a hospital in Argentina, to manipulate the impact of U.S. sanctions on Cuba.
The former regime agent and current national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) fell back into disrepute this Friday after sharing a manipulated photograph for propaganda purposes on his social media.
In his Facebook profile, the former spy shared an image of a baby inside a medical incubator along with a message directed at U.S. Senator Marco Rubio: “Explain to him that your ‘zero oil for Cuba’ policy will only affect ‘the regime’!” wrote Hernández Nordelo.
The problem, as revealed by the user @pues__soy__Clau and reported by journalist Mario J. Pentón, is that the photo was not taken in Cuba, but in an Argentine hospital. The image belongs to the photo bank of Materna Argentina and appears in multiple publications on neonatology in media from that country.
"Gerardo Hernández, former spy of the regime, is misleadingly spreading an image of a baby in an incubator taken in a hospital in Argentina, falsely presenting it as if it were from Cuba, with the clear intention of manipulating public opinion," denounced Pentón on his X account.
User @pues__soy__Clau verified the origin of the content and shared a reverse image search screenshot from Google, where the Argentine origin of the photo is clearly identified. “These communist motherfuckers are a joke,” she wrote angrily, exposing the deception.
This new episode adds to the long list of fake news fabricated or amplified by the communist leader, who in 2025 had already been criticized for spreading another manipulation in which he mixed images of a pro-Trump Cuban singer with a woman detained by ICE in Miami.
Hernández Nordelo's strategy follows the same pattern: to appeal to emotion, indignation, or compassion to build false narratives that reinforce the official discourse and blame the U.S. embargo for all the ills of the country, even when the images used do not even come from the island.
While the regime speaks of "media war," its main spokesperson on social media once again demonstrates that disinformation is a structural part of that war, and its primary victim continues to be the truth.
Epidemics, overcrowded hospitals, and a childhood at risk
The use of false images by Hernández Nordelo occurs at a time when Cuba is facing a real health emergency, with alarming figures of infections and child deaths due to chikungunya and dengue.
The national director of Epidemiology, Dr. Francisco Durán García, confirmed in November that chikungunya especially severely affects children and adolescents.
Among the 95 patients admitted to intensive care units, 63 were under 18 years old, and 16 were in critical condition. Durán warned that transmission remained active in 14 provinces, including Santiago de Cuba, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Artemisa, Pinar del Río, Holguín, La Habana, and Villa Clara, with a mosquito infestation index of Aedes aegypti at 0.73, which is considered high.
“Be very careful with children and young people, as they are more susceptible,” warned the specialist, acknowledging that the situation remained “very complex” throughout the country.
The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) acknowledged in December at least 44 official deaths due to dengue and chikungunya, mostly among children and adolescents, although medical sources consulted by this outlet report much higher figures and a systematic underreporting.
In just one week, eight pediatric deaths were confirmed, while nine minors remained in critical condition, according to Deputy Minister Carilda Peña García.
In Sancti Spíritus, the epicenter of the crisis, seven newborns infected with chikungunya were reported to be receiving care in neonatal intensive care, and one baby has died from the disease, as confirmed by the provincial director of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Carlos Ruiz Santos. MINSAP itself admitted that 71 patients remained in serious or critical condition, including newborns and pregnant women.
Dr. María Eugenia Toledo Romaní, a researcher at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, warned that this is the first large-scale chikungunya epidemic in Cuba and that the country "does not yet have the capacity to make a long-term control forecast."
Meanwhile, hospitals are operating with deteriorating equipment, a lack of oxygen, frequent blackouts, and a total shortage of medications, while infant mortality in Havana has soared to 14 per every thousand live births, the highest rate in three decades.
In the midst of this situation, the propagandistic manipulation by the head of the CDR not only trivializes the real suffering of thousands of Cuban families but also tries to manufacture compassion with a lie, when the truth—sick, collapsed, and neglected Cuba—is already devastating enough.
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