The Cuban regime portrayed the shooting at a boat from Florida in the waters of Villa Clara as a supposed armed infiltration for terrorist purposes. They published the names of those detained, but one of those individuals appeared hours later in the United States, free, unharmed, and denying any connection to the events.
Roberto Azcorra Consuegra, listed by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) among those arrested following the shooting, stated from the U.S. that he was never on that boat.
In a statement to El Toque, he expressed: “I am in shock. I think about how poorly those people work. How can my name appear on that list if I am here in the United States?” he said.
The issue is not just a potential error, but everything it implies for the credibility of the Ministry of the Interior and the repressive apparatus of State Security in Cuba.
If the MININT released an official list with an incorrect name in a case of grave seriousness, with accusations of terrorism, the credibility of the entire report is called into question.
Azcorra claims that he has been residing in the United States since 2017, seeking political asylum. He states that he knows some of those involved but denies having participated in the operation. He also questions how authorities were able to "confirm" his identity without a basic verification, as he was born in Cuba and his fingerprints are in the Cuban civil registry.
In a case presented as evidence of a terrorist threat, a single misattributed name creates a serious crack in the credibility of the official narrative. When the State communicates an armed operation, accuracy is not a minor detail; it is the foundation of the legitimacy of its allegations.
It is not the first time the regime has lied, but this will be remembered as one of the biggest blunders of the Ministry of the Interior in Cuba.
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