Alfredo González, father of Annier González Acosta —an 18-year-old Cuban who lost his life on July 4, 2021, during the Mandatory Military Service (SMO)— shared a heartbreaking message of mourning on Facebook, in which he describes the pain of having buried his son and demands that no other Cuban family experiences the same.
"They say that life has its path, that fathers leave first, and that it is the children who remain strong to say goodbye. But I faced what cannot be named, breaking the order that had been set, bearing the weight of burying my own blood and watching my world fall to pieces," González wrote.
Annier was born on September 1, 2002, and died at the age of 18 while on duty in a watchtower of the Combinado del Sur prison in Matanzas, with the regulation rifle that had been assigned to him. He had been in that unit for only 13 days and had spent the previous 12 isolated due to COVID-19 protocol, with insufficient training to carry a weapon.
The father shares that his son's room remains untouched, just as he left it. "My son's room is just as he left it, with his laughter on the walls. Every night I look up at the sky and wonder why you left," he wrote.
The publication also reflects a resignation to a justice that González considers unattainable: "I know there is no justice that will bring it back to me. Every time I visit your grave, I talk to you even if you don't answer me. It's hard, but what else do we have left?"
Beyond the personal grief, the message is also a direct denunciation of the system. "Let us fight so that more families do not have to suffer the absence of a child due to the chaos and irresponsibility of the Mandatory Military Service in Cuba. Our children can no longer be humiliated and discriminated against by a system that does not respect the children of this homeland, which belongs to everyone, not to its criminal laws," González demanded.
Since Annier's death, his father has spent over five years publicly denouncing the case. The regime arrested him in July 2025 for more than 30 hours, accused of "contempt" for pointing out an officer. He was released under precautionary measures and with a bail of 5,000 Cuban pesos.
The Military Attorney General reportedly acknowledged that there were abuses and that several officers were "severely sanctioned," but the father questioned that account by pointing out that one of those officers was promoted to captain and another was transferred as an instructor. The National Assembly of People's Power, for its part, responded to his request by directing him to seek ordinary legal assistance.
González manages the Facebook group "No more VICTIMS in Military Service in Cuba," which had over 18,000 members in 2026 and has become a platform for citizen documentation.
The case of Annier is not isolated. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory (OCAC) reported at least 97 deaths and disappearances of recruits between August 2001 and the spring of 2026, with an average age of 18.7 years. Suicide was the primary documented cause, with 33 cases (34%), followed by serious or criminal negligence (25 cases) and accidents (22 cases). The Cuban state does not publish official statistics on deaths in military service.
"God, take care of him wherever he is, for here his father loves him with affection, with his memory and an eternal emptiness," González closed his message, dedicated to Annier and to "all the victims of the Mandatory Military Service in Cuba."
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