While the Cuban regime was releasing an official statement about an alleged armed confrontation in the waters of Villa Clara and publishing the identities of the supposed detainees, one of the names included in that list broke the silence from the United States to deny any connection to the events.
Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, identified by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) as one of those arrested following the incident, claims that he was never on that vessel and that he is not even in Cuba.
“It's me, Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, who the dictatorship of Cuba has put on the supposed list of those they have detained, and I am here in the U.S.”, he stated in a conversation with the influencer and activist Eliecer Ávila.
Azcorra, a Cuban native of Cienfuegos and a resident of the United States since 2017 under political asylum, asserts that the inclusion of his name in the official report is a serious mistake or a deliberate maneuver.
"My question is, if they confirm that I am there. They have my database because I was born in Cuba, they know who I am... How are they going to confirm something they do not have? I don't understand it, I don't even know myself," he questioned.
"They put up the organization's list."
During the conversation, Eliecer Ávila suggested that the regime may have used prior information to compile the list without verifying the actual identities of those involved.
“You know what that shows me? That they just put out the list of the organization. They have infiltrated the organization, and since they had that list, they put that out in advance because they assumed you were going to go,” Ávila commented.
Azcorra replied that he knows several of those involved personally.
"I am an activist. I personally know the people in the photo, I have pictures with them and everything," he said, although he insisted that he did not participate in the operation or travel to Cuba.
According to his testimony, he arrived in the United States in 2017 after a journey that included the Bahamas and a period of detention in that country.
"I am a political asylum seeker now... that is the story, the reality," he stated.
He also revealed that he has received dozens of calls from media outlets interested in interviewing him, but he has opted to exercise caution.
“I have received more than forty press calls wanting to interview me, but I told them: there are things I cannot say… since this is related to the ongoing case, I cannot say anything at the moment,” he explained.
What he did want to make clear, as he stated, is an essential point: “The truth of what it is, that you are not the one who is dead or injured there,” Ávila emphasized, to which Azcorra confirmed that he had no involvement in the events.
For him, the matter is especially delicate: “For a dictatorship to put your name out there and confirm it's you, that's something very significant… it can affect you in many ways.”
Azcorra also raised the possibility of confusion with another person with a similar name. “In the photo they are posting, there is one that doesn't show up... and I think that might be the one they are presenting as me because he has the same first name. The only thing that changes are the last names,” he commented.
Still, he left open the suspicion that it may not just be a mistake.
"I don't believe anything with the dictatorship is coincidental, and even less so a topic as delicate as this," he stated.
A questionable list
Azcorra's public statement introduces a degree of doubt regarding the accuracy or rigor of the official list.
"The first list they release is already a lie," Ávila commented during the conversation.
From the United States, Azcorra insists that his name was included without evidence and without basic identity verification.
"In order for you to confirm something, you need to see me, investigate everything, have a photo, have my fingerprints... in order to accept that news," he concluded.
Roberto Azcorra also spoke with the digital outlet elTOQUE, where he reiterated that he is in the U.S. and that, of course, his presence on the list is an error.
The confrontation in the waters of Villa Clara
The case dates back to an official statement from MININT that reported the detection of an alleged "fast boat" registered in the state of Florida (FL7726SH), navigating within Cuban waters, approximately one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, in Cayo Falcones, municipality of Corralillo, province of Villa Clara.
According to the official version, a surface unit of the Border Guard Troops, composed of five personnel, approached to identify the vessel. According to the government report, fire was opened from the boat against the Cuban military.
During the exchange, the commander of the Cuban vessel was injured. The MININT reported four individuals killed on board the boat and six others injured, who were evacuated and received medical care.
Authorities reported that the vessel was carrying ten armed individuals who intended to enter the national territory with "terrorist purposes," according to preliminary statements attributed to those arrested.
Among those officially mentioned as arrested were Amijail Sánchez González, Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.
Duniel Hernández Santos was also arrested in Cuban territory, allegedly linked to the reception of the group.
The MININT also reported the seizure of assault rifles, handguns, homemade incendiary devices, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms.
He indicated that some of those involved have criminal records and that two of them - Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez - appear on the national list of individuals deemed terrorists, updated in July and submitted to the UN.
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