Related videos:
Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, a former Cuban spy sentenced in the United States for conspiracy to commit espionage and complicity in the murder of four Cuban-American pilots, published a tweet in which he calls for "Freedom for Miami, so that we don't have to live in fear!" after visiting El Fanguito, one of the most marginalized and precarious neighborhoods in Havana.
In the post, Hernández stated that he would not reveal whose house he was at "so that the snitch inquisitors from Miami do not retaliate against their families," and he accompanied the message with the hashtags #Cuba, #CDRCuba, and #LaPatriaSeDefiende.
The photograph accompanying the tweet shows Hernández sitting in profile next to a religious altar featuring an image of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, yellow flowers, and various decorative figures, in what appears to be a humble home in the neighborhood.
The irony of the message did not go unnoticed: the man who calls for "freedom" for Miami is precisely the one who led the Red Avispa, a Cuban espionage network that infiltrated the exiled community in South Florida between 1994 and 1998, and who today heads the CDR, an organization associated with surveillance, denunciation, and social control in Cuba.
Hernández was sentenced in 2001 to two life sentences plus 15 months, linked to the shooting down of two planes from Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996, in which four Cuban-American pilots died over international waters in the Florida Strait. He was released in 2014 as part of the diplomatic thaw between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, and he was welcomed in Cuba as a national hero.
The responses to the tweet were decisive.
"One must be a real piece of work to say that there are snitches in Miami, when you are, were, and will always be one, who caused the murder of civilians and defends a dictatorship that incarcerates children, beats the elderly, and sows terror among ordinary Cubans," wrote an internet user.
Another user responded sarcastically: "Yesterday I visited a MININT partner who is getting ready to pick you up when the change comes... They are preparing the cot for you and it's in Cuba."
A third comment pointed directly to the central contradiction of the message: "A note, yes, there are informants in Miami... those you have infiltrated here... who are not heroes but spies, and you, in addition to being a spy, are an accomplice to murder."
Emigrated Cubans were equally straightforward: "If you are afraid, it's because you are another snitch like you. When I have criticized the exile, no one has staged a repudiation meeting against me like you do," and "In Cuba, people live in greater fear; a Cuban can go to prison for merely writing poetry."
Hernández Nordelo's tweet fits into a pattern of recurring controversies.
On June 4th, journalist Mario Vallejo shared a video showing him drinking and smoking at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, one of the most exclusive establishments in the country. Hernández responded without apologizing, stating that he lives "in a free country" and goes "wherever he is invited."
In April, he faced criticism for posting photos of himself eating caldosa in the street while Cuba was experiencing blackouts with a deficit of more than 1,100 MW during peak nighttime hours.
In May 2026, he presented a plan to Díaz-Canel to strengthen the CDR, which critical media noted as a repetition of calls that have yielded no results since 2020, while the organization he leads continues to be identified by human rights groups as an instrument of repression and harassment against the Cuban people.
Filed under: