The former Cuban spy Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), starred in a video released by the Association of Cubans Residing in Canada in which he referred to the United States' policy toward Cuba as "genocide" and expressed gratitude for the support of the Canadian solidarity movement, just days after Washington sanctioned the ICAP for its connections with Cuban intelligence.
The official highlighted the more than 12,000 signatures on parliamentary petition E7082, driven by the Canadian Network on Cuba and the Quebec-Cuba Consultation Table, and urged solidarity movements to mobilize against what he described as a "growing military threat."
"Thank you, Canada, for demonstrating that solidarity between our peoples is not decided in the White House of the United States," said González, closing his remarks with the regime's official slogan: "Homeland or death, we will overcome."
The citizens' reaction in the comments on the video reflects the majority rejection of the official discourse by the Cuban diaspora.
"The only one who hates its people is the communist government; 67 years of suffering, poverty, and hatred towards those who think differently," wrote a user.
Another comment was even more direct: "That is not called solidarity... that is called charity to a failed state by some incompetent communists who misgovern Cuba... you cannot live on charity."
Several Cubans living in Canada also rejected the central argument of the video. "Canadian Cubans agree with the embargo; it is the only way to remove a dictatorship that suffocates and exploits its people. No more demagoguery or lies," stated another participant in the discussion.
González's message comes at a time of intense pressure on the regime. On June 4, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury sanctioned ICAP and its associated company Amistur S.A., accusing them of operating as an influence platform linked to Cuban intelligence services.
In the same round of sanctions, the ruling leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza, the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were also designated.
On June 10, González responded to the sanctions, labeling them a "political act of hostility based on slander" and demanded the immediate removal of ICAP from the OFAC list.
This is not the first time that the former spy has appeared on international stages while Cuba is facing an unprecedented crisis.
In May 2025, the journalist Mario J. Pentón confronted at Madrid's Barajas airport with a direct question: "What are you doing in Spain while the people of Cuba survive in misery and blackouts?".
In April, González called in a colloquium in Havana to use political humor to "deconstruct clichés" about Cuba, in open contradiction with the systematic repression that the regime exerts against critical humorists.
González was sentenced in 2001 in the United States for conspiracy to commit espionage as a member of the Cuban Five, served 17 years and nine months in prison, and was repatriated to Cuba on February 27, 2014.
Since then, the regime has promoted him to diplomatic and political positions, culminating in the presidency of ICAP.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 restrictive measures against entities, officials, and structures linked to the power in Cuba, while Prisoners Defenders recorded 1,214 political prisoners on the island as of February of that year, a historic record.
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