A solidarity march with the Cuban regime held this Sunday in Mexico City sparked a strong controversy among local authorities, after a group of protesters vandalized the Cuauhtémoc Mayor's Office and the alleged perpetrators were released shortly thereafter, according to a report by Infobae.
The mobilization was called by organizations such as Va por Cuba and the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks. Under the slogan "No to the war against Cuba!", the attendees marched from the Hemiciclo a Juárez to the former United States Embassy to reject the U.S. embargo and a potential military intervention on the island.
The demonstration was proceeding without incidents until a second group, made up of individuals with their faces covered, vandalized the façade of the Cuauhtémoc City Hall, a building classified as historical heritage and protected by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL).
Mayor Alessandra Rojo de la Vega condemned the events and clarified the distinction between the right to protest and acts of vandalism.
"The second group did not come to protest. They came to vandalize. With their faces covered, they damaged the facade of the Cuauhtémoc City Hall, a historic building protected by INBAL. Protests should be respected. Crimes should not," she wrote on her social media.
Rojo de la Vega assured that those responsible have been placed at the disposal of the Prosecutor's Office and took the opportunity to reiterate his stance against the Cuban government.
"I will never defend a system that censors, persecutes, and imprisons those who think differently," he stated.
However, the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) of Mexico City provided a different account. In an informational bulletin, it stated that the auxiliary police from the Orion Sector did not present any protesters to the Public Prosecutor's Office; instead, they merely issued warnings to allow the protest to continue peacefully. The agency also announced an internal investigation to determine whether the agents' actions complied with protocols.
The contradiction escalated shortly after. Lilian Chapa Koloffon, the General Director of Citizen Security for the Cuauhtémoc Mayor's Office, stated on her X account that the protesters were indeed made available to the Public Prosecutor's Office, but they were released shortly thereafter.
"As impunity reigns, they have already been released," she wrote.
Rojo de la Vega went further and reported a supposed political intervention aimed at preventing the arrests from taking place.
"The most troubling thing was realizing that, for some, a 'call from above' is worth more than being caught in the act and adhering to the law. When those in power intervene to prevent the law from being enforced, what is being protected is no longer rights: it is protecting impunity," he stated.
The mayor concluded with a direct question:
"Why such effort to defend those who vandalized a historic property? Who were they protecting?"
For its part, the Communist Youth Front of Mexico denounced an alleged "anticommunist repression" and claimed that six of its members were detained without justification. The group linked the operation to Rojo de la Vega's decision to remove, in July 2025, the statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara from Jardín Tabacalera, a measure that triggered a political confrontation with President Claudia Sheinbaum and the Cuban ambassador in Mexico.
So far, neither the Cuauhtémoc Mayor's Office nor the Citizen Security Secretariat has specified the number of people who participated in the march nor have they publicly identified those involved in the vandalism. The discrepancy between both accounts keeps open the question of whether there were formal arrests, and if so, who ordered the release of the demonstrators.
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