Cuba uncovers network trafficking Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine
Cuba uncovers network trafficking Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine
Cuba says it has no part in war in Ukraine and would ‘act vigorously’ against those trafficking Cubans as fighters.
Cuba says it has no part in war in Ukraine and would ‘act vigorously’ against those trafficking Cubans as fighters.
Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring that has coerced Cuban citizens to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry said, adding that Cuba’s authorities were working to “neutralize and dismantle” the network.
The statement on Monday from Cuba’s foreign ministry gave few details but noted the trafficking ring was operating both in the Caribbean island nation and within Russia.
“The Ministry of the Interior detected and is working on the neutralization and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the ministry said in the statement.
“Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against mercenarism and plays an active role in the United Nations in repudiation of this practice,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation.
“Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine. It is acting and will act vigorously against whoever, from the national territory, participates in any form of human trafficking for the purposes of recruitment of mercenarism so that Cuban citizens use weapons against any country.”
The Russian government has not commented on the allegations.
In late May, a Russian newspaper in Ryazan city reported that several Cuban citizens had signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces and had been shipped to Ukraine in return for Russian citizenship.
It was not immediately clear if the Cuban foreign ministry statement was associated with the Ryazan report.
Russia last year announced a plan to boost the size of its armed forces by more than 30 percent to 1.5 million combat personnel, a lofty goal made harder by Russia’s heavy but undisclosed casualties in the war in Ukraine.
Cuba also said in the statement that it had already begun prosecuting cases in which its citizens had been coerced into fighting in Ukraine.
“Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against people involved in these activities,” according to the statement.
Al Jazeera reported last year that the Russian government, through the Wagner mercenary force, had recruited Syrians to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Thousands across war-torn Syria had reportedly expressed an interest in signing up.
In June, it was reported that an Iraqi citizen was killed fighting with Russia’s Wagner mercenary force in Ukraine.
The deceased, Abbas Abuthar Witwit, was recruited from a prison in Russia with the promise that his sentence would be commuted following his service in Ukraine.
According to court papers seen by the Reuters news agency at the time, Witwit had been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on drug charges in July 2021 by a court in the Russian city of Kazan.
Witwit was a first-year student at a technical university in Russia at the time of his conviction.
Cuba being based as usual.
Witwit and i'm sure many others is just tragic, Russia has awful drug laws & i'm sure being Iraqi contributed to his arrest/persecution, then the only chance to get out was to get murdered in Ukraine.
hopefully by 'dismantling' the network those responsible will also be, well, you know
Also dismantled?
“I was never even mantled to begin with!”
…given a window seat plane ticket?
That's awful, and I'm glad that it is being shut down
Permanently Deleted
Only a 4.5 year sentence and that dude would rather go to war? Wtf.
have you been in prison?
Cuba says it has no part in war in Ukraine, but Cuba doesn't condemn Russian genocide and invasion of Ukrainian people since then.
Isn't Russia one of the few countries that Cuba has a friendly relations with? Especially considering the US embargo on them? It isn't very surprising they are choosing to stay silent.
The EU has generally friendly relations with Cuba. Sure there's the occasional letter expressing concern about something but it's not like we're isolating Cuba, or singling them out. Also Spain legitimately cares. The EU is in fact their main trading partner (page 6), about twice the volume of Russia and China combined.
That's exactly what "has no part in X" means. The Ukrainian government is not worth supporting, and Cuba's position won't change much anyways.
“Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against mercenarism and plays an active role in the United Nations in repudiation of this practice,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment continental revolutions across both Africa and South America
I'm sure Che was given compensation during his trips. So Cuba does like mercenaries, but only those that advance their interests.
That's not being a mercenary
Che wasn't a mercenary, he would have been plenty comfortable staying in Cuba but went to help revolutionary movements elsewhere (sometimes in an alarming degree of isolation). If anything, he was closer to being a volunteer.
Unless you are trying to count every single soldier in history as a mercenary, then you are wrong.
He was working for the Cuban government, on sanctioned actions to advise guerrilla groups in some of the poorest nations on earth. That’s very much not what a mercenary does. He fought against mercenaries in the Congo.
It’s also funny you need to bring up a person from 50 years ago to do your “whataboutism” on Cuba.
your “whataboutism” on Cuba
"So libs do like whataboutism, but only whataboutism that advances their interests."
What internet debate perverts call "whataboutism" is in fact a cornerstone of what passes as international law:
Customary international law “... consists of rules of law derived from the consistent conduct of States acting out of the belief that the law required them to act that way.” (Shabtai Rosenne, Practice and Methods of International Law 55 (1984)). The elements of customary international law include:
- the widespread repetition by States of similar international acts over time (State practice);
- the requirement that the acts must occur out of a sense of obligation (opinio juris); and
- that the acts are taken by a significant number of States and not rejected by a significant number of States.
Put simply, what other states do impacts the legality of that action. This concept appears even in the interpretation of treaties, because even when you have a written law to work with you still have to see how it has been applied in other situations in order to apply it consistently.
Fighting for money and fighting for revolution in a way that allows you to continue to exist assuming you're not killed are distinct actually. Che had it set in Cuba. He chose to go risk getting killed for his humanist beliefs, not for money.
I mean, conventional soldiers are paid as well. I'd expect the venture has to be primarily commercial in motivation to count as mercenary.
By definition that's not being a mercenary, that's just following along the more revolutionary Marxist principle of fomenting socialist action against the West
It depends by whom. Guevara and Castro had a falling out around that time, with Guevara effectively leaving Cuba behind entirely. I think Castro was happy that Guevara was going to fight for the revolution abroad.
Guevara and Castro had a falling out around that tim
as has been pointed out elsewhere in these comments this is grossly overstated
This is a better explanation than "he selflessly wanted to help". He was a killer who liked killing. "Revolution" was just a means to that end. He has a whole list of quotes about killing!
https://www.azquotes.com/author/5993-Che_Guevara/tag/killing
Cuba, you suck and so do your cigars.