The independent journalist Ernesto Morales shared a video on Facebook this Monday that Eddy Ceballos recorded weeks before his arrest, with explicit instructions to make it public if he was detained. Ceballos, the creator of the satirical channel Despingovery Channel, was arrested today in Havana during a large police operation by the Cuban regime.
According to testimonies gathered by Morales, the agents intercepted Ceballos near his home, not allowing him to enter his house or notify his wife. "The deployment of motorcycles was massive," witnesses of the operation stated.
In the video, recorded with the full awareness that his arrest was imminent, Ceballos delivers a direct message to those who watch it: "If you are watching this video, it unfortunately means that I have been imprisoned, separated from my home, my family, my daughter, once again revealing the true nature of the Cuban government."
The digital creator denounces in the message that his arrest shows that "there is not the slightest bit of freedom of expression" nor "the slightest respect for any human rights" on the island.
Ceballos also rejects any political justification for his incarceration: "What is happening to me is a total injustice, as I have never spoken ill of any political entity, and yet they have sought to silence me through imprisonment."
The immediate trigger for the detention was the post on Instagram showcasing what Ceballos described as his “most warlike chapter”: the exploration of an abandoned military facility with Soviet missiles from the 1960s, radars, and bunkers. In front of the camera, he described one of the artifacts as “an air-to-surface missile from around the 1960s, from the Cold War. A monumental thing that I never thought I would be able to touch in my life.”
The content proved to be politically sensitive at a time when the Cuban National Assembly had declared, on May 27, a "real and dangerous threat of direct military aggression" from the United States.
Despingovery Channel went viral in April 2025 for its parodies in the style of nature documentaries, in which Ceballos narrated with a pseudoscientific tone the potholes, ruins, and deteriorating infrastructure of Cuba. Since April 2026, he also collaborated with the independent media outlet Cubanet.
Cuban authorities have not commented on the arrest or provided any information regarding possible charges against Ceballos.
The arrest is part of a growing pattern of repression against digital creators in Cuba. The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press recorded 69 arbitrary detentions in January 2026, an increase of 430% compared to the same month in 2025. Among the recent cases is that of Luismi Arias, arrested in Ciego de Ávila in April 2026, and the creators of El4tico in Holguín, who were arrested on February 6, 2026, and accused of "propaganda against the constitutional order," facing possible sentences of up to nine years.
In closing his message, Ceballos urged all Cubans, both on the island and abroad, not to abandon those who are currently facing prison for political reasons: "Do not let them die, do not let them be forgotten, and we must fight this battle."
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