Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of the five former Cuban spies convicted in the United States and the current national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), mocked this Sunday the demonstration organized by the Cuban exile community in Miami to mark the fifth anniversary of the protests on July 11, 2021.
Through his account on the social network X, Hernández shared an edited image from CiberCuba of the gathering held in front of the Cubamax Travel agency in Hialeah, along with the phrase: "Massive demonstration!", accompanied by an ironic comment.
"They say that the reason there were so few people is because of ICE, as they are deporting everyone with a criminal record...," he wrote.
The demonstration had been organized on Saturday by activist Ariel Góngora and the group Exilio Unido Ya, in front of the Cubamax offices, a company criticized by some sectors of the exile community for its ties to the Cuban regime.
Participants carried signs with messages such as "#SOS Political Prisoners" and "Cuba demands freedom," in addition to calling for the release of those imprisoned following the protests on July 11th.
During a live broadcast on Facebook, Góngora stated that the owners of the company, Carlos Trujillo and Giraldo Acosta, act as "front men for the Castro dictatorship."
For her part, activist Iliana Curra Lussón described the protest as "peaceful, but vigorous."
"We are here, as always, confronting communism, confronting the Castroists, and confronting the allies and accomplices of terrorism in Cuba," he declared.
The reference to ICE
Hernández's irony referred to the increase in the detentions and deportations of Cuban migrants by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
However, immigration lawyer Willy Allen has publicly stated that a significant portion of Cubans detained by ICE have no criminal records, in contrast to the notion that immigration operations exclusively target individuals convicted of crimes.
The deportations of Cubans from the U.S. to the island have steadily increased during Donald Trump’s second term. While the Joe Biden administration conducted 21 flights to Havana with 978 people deported, in less than 18 months of Trump’s current presidential term, there have been 18 direct flights with 2,164 repatriated individuals.
Starting this year, repatriation flights to the island have included individuals convicted of serious crimes, accepted for the first time by the Havana regime since air operations resumed in April 2023. From January to June, Washington returned 666 Cuban citizens.
A constant exchange with the exile
Since his return to Cuba in December 2014, after being released as part of the restoration of relations between Washington and Havana, Hernández has maintained an intense activity on social media, where he often responds sarcastically to politicians, journalists, and activists from the Cuban exile community.
In recent months, he has directed publications against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, and other critics of the regime. In June, he even made an ironic comment about the situation in Miami by asking for “freedom for Miami to not live in fear”.
The controversial publication this Sunday coincides with the fifth anniversary of July 11, 2021, the largest wave of anti-government protests recorded in Cuba in decades.
Human rights organizations estimate that between 1,281 and 1,306 people are incarcerated for political reasons on the island, including hundreds of demonstrators from 11J. On Saturday, the Secretary of State once again demanded their immediate release and assured that the United States will continue to use "all the tools at its disposal" to support the Cuban people.
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