The Cuban Embassy in Mozambique published this Friday on its official Facebook page a 58-second video generated with artificial intelligence in which two alleged ICE agents — the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — are seen arresting Julián Quiñones, the star forward of the Mexican national team, in front of a crowd full of fans.
The error that turned the propaganda piece into an object of mass ridicule is as elementary as it is devastating: the party referenced in the video, Mexico vs. South Africa in the inaugural match of the 2026 World Cup, was held on Thursday at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, in front of 80,824 spectators. ICE is a U.S. federal agency with no police jurisdiction in Mexican territory.
The image, bearing the stamp of "Aguaje Films," shows Quiñones wearing the number 11 on the green jersey of Mexico, being held by two uniformed police officers in black with the inscription "ICE."
The post was accompanied by the official hashtags of the Cuban regime: #CubaEstaFirme, #CubaResiste, #PatriaOMuerte, and #Venceremos, and it tagged the Cuban Foreign Ministry, the Presidency of Cuba, and the Cuban Medical Brigade in Mozambique.
The journalist Mario J. Pentón was the one who publicly alerted about the manipulation: «Warning of manipulation and lies! The Cuban dictatorship's embassy in Mozambique publishes a video made with artificial intelligence in which it shows two ICE agents arresting Julián Quiñones, the star player from Mexico. The small but significant error of the mediocre diplomats is that the game took place in Mexico, not in the United States.»
The comments section of the post was filled with criticisms and mockery, many of them from users identifying as Cuban.
"What is ICE doing in Mexico?" asked a user. "Now ICE operates in Mexico," another joked. "If this is a meme, it’s terrible because the game was in Mexico; they are just stupid and ignorant," wrote a third.
A commentator pointed out the logical absurdity of the scene: "And if that happened in Mexico and he is Mexican, where do they deport him? To Cuba? Because that would indeed be a tremendous punishment. You don't respect yourselves by lying so much."
Another user directly addressed the diplomatic mission: "It is a disrespect for a diplomatic mission of my country to be spreading news and videos that are not real; what they should be doing is worrying more about their fellow nationals and adhering to the line of work that an embassy should have, it's embarrassing."
The reactions also included calls to report the content to the platform: "We're going to report the video for false images," wrote a user. "Remove the AI from these people," added another.
Quiñones was precisely the hero of the match that the regime tried to distort: the Colombian forward naturalized Mexican scored the first goal for Mexico in the 2026 World Cup in the ninth minute, leading to a 2-0 victory over South Africa, which ended a streak of seven opening matches in the World Cup without a win for El Tri.
The incident occurs days after the United States Embassy in Cuba warned about the use of its institutional image by the so-called "ciberclarias" to spread falsehoods, and following the sanctions imposed by Washington on June 9 against operators linked to those disinformation networks of the Cuban regime.
It is not the first time that regime officials have resorted to false images to create narratives. In February, Gerardo Hernández was accused of using a photo of an Argentine baby for propaganda purposes, in a pattern that has also been documented in Venezuela, where Maduro’s regime used journalists created with artificial intelligence to spread news favorable to the government.
"God, erase that. How embarrassing!" summarized a user in the comments on the embassy's post.
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