The Minister of Public Health of Cuba, José Ángel Portal Miranda, has faced two blows in less than 48 hours: first, he was included in a round of U.S. sanctions on Wednesday, and this Friday the Ministry itself (MINSAP) confirmed on X that the official's personal account on that platform had been hacked.
"We inform you that the Minister of Public Health of Cuba, Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, now has his new official profile on X following the hacking of his previous account," published MINSAP, which indicated that the minister's new official username is @PortalMirandaJA, replacing the former account @japortalmiranda.
The ministry did not provide details about the perpetrators of the hack or the content that may have been published from the compromised account.
The incident on social media comes a day after the Department of State announced sanctions against Portal Miranda and the Cuban medical mission apparatus, which also included the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation (UCCM), its director Gretza Sánchez Padrón, and the Commercializer of Cuban Medical Services (CSMC).
In total, the round on Wednesday designated nine entities and two individuals linked to the Cuban regime.
Washington described Cuba's medical missions as a form of "forced labor" and "human trafficking," noting that tens of thousands of medical workers in over 50 countries are subjected to this exploitation.
The measures are based on the Executive Order 14404 signed by Donald Trump on May 1, 2026, which authorizes sanctions against individuals involved in repression in Cuba.
The Cuban regime rejects the characterization of its missions as forced labor, defending them as international medical cooperation.
Wednesday's sanctions are part of a stepped-up campaign by the Trump administration that began in May with actions against regime elites, continued in June with military entities and the oil company Unión Cuba-Petróleo, and now targets the core of the medical missions abroad program, one of the main sources of foreign currency for the Cuban state.
Portal Miranda, who has held the position since July 2018, is a doctor, a member of the National Assembly, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
The official has presided over the MINSAP during one of the most critical periods of the Cuban healthcare system.
In July 2025, he acknowledged before the National Assembly a "unprecedented structural crisis" in the sector, stating that only around 30% of the essential medicine stock was being covered.
In February 2026, Portal Miranda admitted to the AP agency that the Cuban healthcare system was "on the brink of collapse."
The hacking of your account is not the first incident of this kind affecting officials of the regime on X: in January 2025, the official account of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs was compromised and used to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency called "Cuban Digital Coin."
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