Eddy Ceballos, the young creator of the satirical channel Despingovery Channel, marks this Thursday 165 days in pretrial detention without a trial having been held against him, and his mother Marieta Pérez Alfaro has publicly shared a handwritten letter that her son wrote to her from prison.
In the text, Ceballos refers to his mother as "my lioness" and confesses that her strength is the only fuel that keeps him from collapsing in the face of what he describes as "a foe bigger than me."
"My mom, in this sea of hardships, I try every day to focus on the little positives, and the greatest fuel I have to strengthen my will is seeing you solid as a rock; knowing that you are fighting for me like a LIONESS pushes me every day to rise to the occasion," wrote the young man from prison.
The letter, addressed "to the architect of who I am," reveals Ceballos's emotional state with a touching frankness: "When I think about breaking down, your energy, your support, your good wishes reach me, and it's an injection of courage that helps me fight against an enemy greater than myself."
She also confesses to her mother the magnitude of what she feels seeing her become her main public defender: "You can't imagine the immense happiness I feel knowing that in my worst moment is when you are the proudest of me."
In sharing the letter, Marieta Pérez Alfaro wrote: "My son, Eddy Ceballos, has been unjustly imprisoned for 165 days, awaiting trial. This letter of his that I share today always moves me when I read it, and it comforts me to know that he is not alone. Today, he is the one who directs my steps, and I feel proud of the man he has become."
The mother closed her post with a phrase that sums up five and a half months of struggle: "I don't know where we're going to end up, but we're going together."
Ceballos was arrested on June 1, 2026 in the Diez de Octubre municipality of Havana, after posting a video on Instagram in which he explored an abandoned military installation with Soviet missiles from the 1960s, radars, and Cold War bunkers.
The authorities initially informed the family that he would be prosecuted for "invasion of military property," a charge that the organization Cubalex denounced as nonexistent in the current Cuban Penal Code.
The case was subsequently reclassified to "revelation of secrets pertaining to State Security," as defined in Article 116 of the Penal Code, with penalties that can range from 10 to 30 years in prison, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty, and it was placed under the jurisdiction of a Military Court.
Over the course of these more than five months, the family has compiled a long list of complaints: physical assault during detention, denial of visits, rejection of the request for a change in precautionary measures by the Prosecutor's Office, and dismissal of the complaint appeal.
The Military Tribunal maintained preventive detention on September 30, and the family reported that the ruling misrepresented Ceballos' statements, attributing to him an acknowledgment of facts that he did not commit.
In August, Ceballos himself had already sent a letter from prison in which he rejected the accusations and defined himself as "an artist, not a spy."
Despingovery Channel went viral in April 2025 for its parodies of nature documentary style, in which Ceballos narrated with a pseudoscientific tone the potholes, the ruined streets, and the ruins of Cuba.
Their case falls within a pattern of increasing repression against digital content creators on the island: Cuba ranks 160 out of 180 in the 2026 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, making it the second worst country in the Americas.
The letter closes with a promise that Ceballos makes to his mother from his cell: "The goal of my life is to leave a legacy for society, and within the size of that legacy lies your own. Every victory of mine will be yours because I am who I am thanks to you. I LOVE YOU, my Lioness."
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