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A false montage that fraudulently used the visual identity of CiberCuba to announce the supposed death of Raúl Castro went viral this Thursday on Instagram, accumulating thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments before being publicly debunked by this outlet.
The post originated from the account @luismolina_tattoo with the text "Seeing is believing, otherwise they'll say it's a lie," and it spread rapidly among users in Cuba and abroad.
The official account of CiberCuba on Instagram directly responded in the comments of the viral post with a clear message: "FALSE MONTAGE USING OUR IMAGE: delete this false post."
Users' reactions ranged from humor and disbelief to a hope that the news was true.
"Cuba is in mourning, dad has died," wrote the post's author in the comments, to which another user replied, "May God hear you." Others were more skeptical: "That's a lie, he's capable of putting on that show to get out of it," noted one internet user.
They repeatedly use the image of CiberCuba to generate fake news
The fraudulent use of CiberCuba's visual identity to spread false news aims to achieve two documented objectives: to generate confusion and viral debate, and to harm the reputation of the media outlet.
The rule for identifying these hoaxes is simple: if the news does not appear on the official CiberCuba platforms, it is a fabrication.
In September 2025, CiberCuba debunked an identical rumor that followed a documented amplification chain: a profile lacking credibility published that Castro had been hospitalized urgently.
Another page, posing as a media outlet, replicated that content and it even reached international media that cited it as "unofficial sources," and eventually a parody account that mimics the CiberCuba format escalated the "hospitalization" to "death."
The very author of the rumor, Ignacio Giménez, admitted to having deliberately fabricated it and stated that it was a "test" to measure the reliability of the media. In September 2024, an analogous episode occurred with false and manipulated images.
The ground for this disinformation is particularly fertile at this moment. On May 1st, Raúl Castro appeared visibly unwell at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana presiding over the Labor Day event alongside Díaz-Canel. It was his first public appearance in five months.
Before that date, his last appearance had been on December 2, 2025, at the final session of the National Assembly, where he was described as frail and having difficulty walking.
In March 2026, Castro was absent from the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which reignited speculation about his health condition.
In April 2026, Díaz-Canel stated to Telesur that Raúl Castro was "alive but retired for health reasons" and that he was "fragile due to his advanced age."
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