Thirteen Montrealers say they've been targeted by a campaign of harassment launched by the Cuban government to keep them from protesting against one-party rule on the island.
A social media account which — according to a Cuban defector — is being run by Cuba's state security has been spreading detailed allegations against the 13 men accusing them of trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Canada.
His interrogation — by a man who introduced himself as Col. Luis Morales — was videotaped and would shortly be used as one of the elements in an elaborate allegation against him and a dozen fellow Cuban-Canadian dissidents. The person behind the Guerrero account does not show their face in the videos. A recent Cuban government defector has identified the individual behind the account as Col. Pedro Orlando Martínez, head of the political wing of Cuba's National Revolutionary Police.
In the narration accompanying the first video, the Guerrero claims he has more damning footage from the interview that he will release at a later date. A second video, released two weeks after the first, showed more interrogation clips but still did not include any confessions by Andrades regarding involvement with drug trafficking or allegations against anyone else.
The 1980s were a time of ferment in Cuban exile communities, with many groups scheming to depose the Castro regime."I was arrested, I received a ten-year sentence. I did my time and after that I reintegrated into the community." Some of the men on the list own businesses that were also identified in the videos. They include a trucking company the videos claim is involved in distributing the drugs, and a dance studio that is named as a meeting place for the supposed conspiracy. Also named as a member of the conspiracy is the Montreal-based anti-regime YouTuber with nearly 90,000 followers.All of the men named in the videos deny the existence of any such network.
"I went to the police and I said, look, I'm afraid that they'll put something in my house, that they'll put something in my car," he said.
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