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.

  • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
    ·
    10 months ago

    “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.

    • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        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.

        • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
          ·
          10 months ago

          I have no idea what you are telling me, but the guy clicked on an article about Cuba, clearly didn’t read the article, and tried to make Cuba sound as bad as empire states in his comment. I feel like that’s a whataboutism and I’m not a pervert. 🙏

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            I was building on your point about whataboutism and directing most of my comment at the person you replied to -- I could have made that clearer. You're not a debate pervert!

            • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
              ·
              10 months ago

              Okay that makes more sense. And I like the link you added, and just finished reading it over! I just used the word and thought I was on blast

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don't know if Che could have stayed in Cuba. After returning from Algeria, Che and Fidel were fighting and the resolution of that fight was Che leaving Cuba and renouncing his Cuban citizenship. This isn't something you do if you are comfortable staying in Cuba.

        • What_Religion_R_They [none/use name]
          ·
          10 months ago

          ...maybe read his actual letter?

          Let it be known that I do it with a mixture of joy and sorrow: I am leaving here the purest of my hopes as a builder and the most loved among my beloved creatures, and I leave a people who accepted me as a son; this rends a part of my spirit. On new battlefields I will carry with me the faith that you inculcated in me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of having fulfilled the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be; this comforts and heals any wound to a great extent.
          I say once more that I free Cuba of any responsibility save that which stems from its example: that if the final hour comes upon me under other skies, my last thought will be for this people and especially for you, that I am thankful to you for your teachings and your example, and that I will try to be faithful up to the final consequences of my acts; that I have at all times been identified with the foreign policy of our Revolution, and I continue to be so; that wherever I may end up I will feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I will act as one; that I leave nothing material to my children and my wife, and this does not grieve me: I am glad that it be so; that I ask nothing for them, since the State will give them sufficient to live and will educate them.

          • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
            ·
            10 months ago

            And read about what was going on with Che and Fidel at that time.

            That's a politician's resignation letter. They are always written to make all parties look good.

            • utopologist [any]
              ·
              10 months ago

              If you read more of Che's letters, you'll see that that one is written in exactly the same style as the rest of his letters, both those intended for only one person and those he knew would be shared. I think you're overstating the nature of Fidel and Che's disagreement; there were some ideological disagreements but I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that Che leaving Cuba to foment revolution had anything to do with his relationship to Fidel

    • ThereRisesARedStar [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.

    • Bloobish [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      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

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      ·
      10 months ago

      I mean, conventional soldiers are paid as well. I'd expect the venture has to be primarily commercial in motivation to count as mercenary.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.