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Christian Rodríguez Riverón, the cameraman for the Cuban satirical channel «Despingovery Channel», is currently detained and facing charges of espionage, according to a report by Cuban journalist Ernesto Morales shared this Thursday.
According to sources close to the case cited by Morales, Christian was summoned to a police unit and was not allowed to return home.
From there, he was transferred to the facility known as «El Reloj Club», in the municipality of Boyeros, Havana, where he remains confined.
His arrest occurred approximately two weeks after the detention of Eduardo «Eddy» Ceballos, the creator of the channel, which took place on June 1, 2026.
According to the same source, Christian's family was notified that they face accusations similar to those of Ceballos: espionage, classified in the Cuban Penal Code as "revelation of secrets concerning State Security," an offense that carries penalties of 10 to 30 years in prison, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty.
Both were recorded together in the video that triggered the case: an exploration of an old military facility in Havana with Soviet missiles from the 1960s, radars, and Cold War bunkers, which was published on May 24, 2026, on Instagram.
Morales described the content as "the discarded junk that is being presented as secret weaponry."
The source close to the case also indicated that Christian has already given a statement, which reportedly coincided with the account that Ceballos provided regarding the events under investigation.
His family managed to visit him once, and they have another visit scheduled for this week.
The case of Ceballos has now been a month since his arrest, with the Prosecutor's Office neither concluding the investigation nor submitting the case to a court.
The human rights organization Cubalex reported that the initial charge of "invasion of military property" does not exist in the Cuban Penal Code or the Military Penal Code, labeling the arrests as a blatant violation of the principle of legality.
Ceballos was transferred on June 5 to the Combined Eastern High-Security Penitentiary, a different facility from the one housing his cameraman.
The authorities also seized the clothing that both were wearing during the filming as evidence.
The mother of Ceballos, Marieta Pérez Alfaro, demanded the release of her son as one month passed since his arrest and reported that he was physically assaulted in prison.
"The fact that they are taking this to extreme levels, accusing him of espionage, confirms that they want to silence him, and they want to use him as an example," he stated.
The case falls within a pattern of increasing repression against digital creators in Cuba. Reporters Without Borders places Cuba in 160th position out of 180 countries in its 2026 Press Freedom Index, making it the second worst country in the Americas.
"Despite my pain and exhaustion, I will continue to speak for him," stated Pérez Alfaro this Thursday.
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