The Cuban content creator José Martínez published this Thursday on Facebook a satirical 72-second reel in verse in which he dramatizes, with dark humor and sharp irony, the criminal process that Raúl Castro would face if judged by the same methods that the Cuban regime applies to its political prisoners.
The video arrives just three days after the United States Department of Justice declassified, last Wednesday, the federal charges filed against the former dictator before a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on April 23, 2026, which accuses him of conspiracy to assassinate American citizens, destruction of civilian aircraft, and four counts of homicide.
The charges refer to the shooting down of two Cessna 337 aircraft from Hermanos al Rescate on February 24, 1996, when MiG-29 fighters from the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force killed Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales over international waters of the Florida Straits.
Raúl Castro was then the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a position from which, according to the charges, he ordered or authorized the operation.
The reel by Martinez begins with a phrase that encapsulates all the irony of the situation: "Make silence known, / for many have been forbidden to speak. / And do not sit down again, / for you have sat for too long."
From there, the script precisely traverses part of the catalog of daily tortures that the regime reserves for its opponents: "They keep him handcuffed, / begging God for mercy. / And in the cell, just rice, / no milk or meat. / Let him learn what hunger is."
For the interrogation part, Martínez doesn't need to make anything up: "For the interrogation, / no innovation is necessary. / The communist method / used in Villa Marista," says the reel, referring to the headquarters of Seguridad del Estado in Havana, infamously known for the isolation, psychological pressure, and degrading conditions imposed on those who go through its cells.
The Cuban journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, who reported having spent a week in Villa Marista, described the experience with an image that requires no embellishments: "I chewed on a salt rock just the same as a stone in the rice."
The inventory of conditions that Martínez fictitiously applies to Raúl Castro is not fiction for the more than 1,161 political prisoners that the organization Prisoners Defenders counted in Cuba at the end of 2024: «No correspondence. / All their belongings / remain confiscated. / If any bag / sent by the family arrives, / it is used for propaganda».
The reel continues with details that any Cuban political prisoner would recognize instantly: "And don’t give me even a juice. [...] / Don’t count on toilet paper / or soap. / Every day a blackout / that lasts 25 hours."
The finishing touch is the final statement, which is also the truest reflection of revolutionary justice: "Regarding the sentence... / it will implicitly carry the essence / of its boastful democracy. / Ask them in the morning / what they believe they deserve, / but the sentence will be / whatever we feel like giving."
While the video was circulating, the Cuban State Council and Parliament came to Raúl Castro's defense, the Nicaraguan dictatorship closed ranks with the accused, and the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, questioned the charges.
The accusation is primarily symbolic in nature: Raúl Castro, 94 years old, resides in Cuba, there is no extradition treaty between the island and the United States, and the former dictator is not under U.S. jurisdiction. However, if judged, he could face life imprisonment for the charges against him, alongside the five Cuban ex-military officers accused with him: Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez.
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