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Mercedes Roque, mother of the recruit Antonio Rassi Roque who passed away nearly a year ago during Mandatory Military Service (SMO), complained this Thursday that Prosecutor Velázquez from the Regional Prosecutor's Office summoned her to inform her about the closure of the case through provisional dismissal, a legal figure that implies the suspension and temporary filing of the process due to insufficient evidence to continue the case.
Antonio Rassi Roque was 18 years old when he died on August 18, 2025 at Military Unit 5050, known as "El Calvario," in Havana.
The official version classified it as suicide, but his mother rejects this account and argues that it was a result of negligence and harassment by the unit officers.
In her post, Mercedes Roque bitterly summarized the logic that, in her opinion, governs the Cuban judicial system: "There is no reason to pursue the case because the deceased is merely a recruit. But if my son had shot First Lieutenant Aldo Fabregas Ardiles—a politician from the 5050 and directly responsible for Rassi Roque's death—then yes, that judge would have had more than enough reason to take the case to its conclusion."
The mother directly points to First Political Lieutenant Aldo Fabregas Ardiles as the main responsible for her son's death, and also to Captain Ricardo Martínez as part of the group of officers involved. Neither of them has been prosecuted.
The provisional dismissal, regulated by Article 423 of Law 143 of the Cuban Criminal Procedure, in effect since 2022, allows for the temporary filing of the case without issuing a judgment and without the judge examining the substance of the matter.
Although it can technically be reopened if new evidence emerges, there is no defined timeline for this.
For Mercedes Roque, the resolution amounts to total impunity. "The death of a recruit is not important; it's just another number. But the death of an officer is," she wrote, after 10 months of fruitless negotiations with military and judicial authorities.
The journey undertaken by this mother has been documented over the course of almost a year. She tried to visit the unit on August 15 and 24, 2025 but was not attended to, and on September 30, she was only received by a commission with no direct connection to the events.
In November 2025, she met with the head of the Western Army and the Military Prosecutor's Office, who promised "total transparency." The outcome was the dismissal of the case.
The case fits into a broader pattern. Cubalex documented at least 19 deaths of recruits during the SMO in 2025 and a total of at least 78 fatalities since 2019 under opaque or negligent circumstances.
Between July and August 2025, at least seven young people died while serving in the military.
Far from reforming the institution, the regime approved Decree 103/2024 in October 2024, which tightened the penalties for non-compliance with the SMO, imposing fines ranging from 2,500 to 7,000 pesos and criminal consequences for young people over 16 years of age.
Other mothers have experienced similar situations.
In January 2026, a mother reported that an officer shot her son while on duty and that the young man was arrested while the officer was released.
Similarly, in March 2026, a 19-year-old young man died during military service in Havana, adding another case to the pattern of impunity.
"Disgusting system where we have to rely on mothers who have lost a child in the SMO and that we will not achieve justice," concluded Mercedes Roque in her post this Thursday.
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