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The content creator Eddy Ceballos, known for the satirical channel Despingovery Channel, will be prosecuted for the alleged crime of "invasion of military property," according to a direct relative who confirmed to CubaNet following his arrest this Monday in Havana during a dramatic police operation near his home.
Authorities did not allow Ceballos to enter his home or inform his wife before being transferred. Since then, his relatives have been unable to see him or learn about the conditions under which he is being held.
"The instructor told us that he is going to be processed, but we still cannot see him. We haven’t even been able to provide him with basic hygiene. We really don’t know how he is," declared a family member on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The trigger for the arrest was the Instagram post of a preview of his most recent episode, in which Ceballos explored a abandoned military facility filled with the regime's military scrap: air-to-ground missiles from the 60s, radars, and Cold War bunkers in an advanced state of disrepair.
"I'm holding an air-to-ground missile from the 1960s, around the Cold War. Look at this, lovers of absurdity," the comedian commented in front of the camera while displaying one of the artifacts.
The charge communicated by the authorities to the family, however, lacks legal basis. The lawyer from Cubalex, Alain Santana, pointed out that the crime of "invasion of military property" is not defined in either the Civil Penal Code (Law 151/2022) or the Military Penal Code (Law 163/2023).
"The Military Penal Code itself strictly establishes in its Article 3 that only those acts explicitly provided for in the law prior to their commission constitute crimes, prohibiting the use of analogy to create offenses. Accusing and depriving a citizen of their liberty based on a non-existent criminal figure constitutes a flagrant violation of the principle of legality," stated the jurist.
Another expert added that the arrest "evidences the political will of the Cuban government to restrict human rights instead of protecting them," highlighting serious irregularities that undermine due process.
The independent journalist Ernesto Morales shared a video that Ceballos had recorded weeks earlier with explicit instructions to make it public if he was detained.
Despingovery Channel went viral in April 2025 with parodies in the style of nature documentaries, in which Ceballos narrated with a pseudoscientific tone the potholes, ruins, and deteriorating infrastructure of Cuba. Since mid-April 2026, he has also collaborated with the independent media outlet Cubanet, publishing satirical videos about the realities of the Island.
Your case is part of a systematic pattern of repression against digital creators. In February 2026, members of the El4tico project were detained in Holguín on charges of propaganda against the constitutional order, and they remained in provisional detention until at least April. In March, State Security interrogated the mother of YouTuber Anna Bensi as a pressure tactic.
Reporters Without Borders placed Cuba at 160 out of 180 countries in its 2026 Press Freedom Index, a year that witnessed 69 arbitrary detentions of journalists just in January.
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