With a lit candle and a voice marked by pain, Mercedes Roque recalled the six months since the death of her son Antonio Rassi Roque, who passed away while fulfilling his mandatory military service in Cuba.
“Here is the candle for the 6 months my son turns today. Here is where they condemned my son to live eternally at just 18 years old,” he expressed in a post on social media.
The mother insisted that her son, whom she described as a "good boy, with no issues in his career," lost his life due to a malpractice and the actions of officials who, she claims, still remain in their positions.
"My son was not disposable," she stated, referring to comments that—according to her—downplayed what had happened.
Roque also questioned the lack of institutional responses. "Tomorrow marks three months since I presented my case, and I haven't received a single response, call, or anything," he claimed, while insisting that his case has not been addressed with the transparency it deserves.
The mother also made a direct criticism of compulsory military service, which she blames for having taken her son's life at just 18 years old.
"It is a no to Military Service. It is a no to mandatory Military Service," she concluded.
The case has reignited the debate about the conditions and safety of young people fulfilling Military Service on the island, as well as the need for clear investigations and accountability when deaths occur under state custody.
The pain of this mother is beyond imagination. Some say that the natural law is for children to outlive their parents.
However, many argue that the opposite case (when parents lose their children) results in one of the greatest torments in anyone's life.
The story of Antonio Rassi Roque is not new to the public. Since August 2025, his mother has reported irregularities, a lack of attention to the young man's emotional state, and systematic obstacles in obtaining explanations.
She has recounted that she was never informed about the conditions in which her son was, despite other recruits noticing his physical and emotional decline.
She has also reported that for weeks she was ignored when she attempted to go to the military unit after the young man's death.
According to the official version, Antonio made the decision to take his own life. His mother, however, maintains that it was a reaction provoked by the hostile environment within the unit.
"Something happened," he insists, recalling the last phone call from his son before he went into the shift, hours before he died.
Antonio's case is part of a broader context of young deaths during Military Service in Cuba, a program that has been in place since 1963 and is increasingly being challenged by families and independent organizations.
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces has not issued a public statement regarding the case of Antonio Rassi Roque.
Meanwhile, her mother continues to write, pointing out and demanding. Not as an activist or an opponent, but as a Cuban mother who sent her son off healthy and received him dead.
“ I love you, my beautiful Antonio,” wrote Mercedes. And alongside her love, she made something else clear: there will be no silence.
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