According to reports, the 29-year-old organized false profile brigades to attack Cuban journalists, activists and opponents on networks.
MIAMI, United States. – In Cuba, Raúl Omar Rodríguez Gracia, former leader of the Federation of University Students (FEU) at the Faculty of Medicine of Santa Clara (Villa Clara) and activist of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), organized brigades of false profiles to attack journalists, activists and opponents on networks, and took part in repressive operations during the protests of July 11, 2021. However, today he resides in Florida, where he aspires to permanent residence in the United States, according to a report by journalist Mario J. Pentón in Martí News.
Rodríguez Gracia’s role at the head of student political organizations is still reported in official Cuban media, such as the newspaper Vanguardofficial organ of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in Villa Clara, which presents it in a report from 2021 as president of the FEU of the School of Medical Sciences of the province.
For its part, Martí News points out that, according to several close sources, Rodríguez Gracia fears that the US immigration authorities will learn of his history of collaboration with the Cuban repressive apparatus. “He is one of the typical youth repressors at the service of the regime. According to multiple complaints that we have received at the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, he actively participated in the repression of 11J. There are even videos that show him mobilized to attack peaceful protesters who were asking for freedom,” he declared to Martí News Luis Domínguez, researcher at that organization.
According to the reconstruction carried out by the media, the 29-year-old entered the United States in November 2022. Until a few weeks before his arrival, he was still spreading messages of support for the Miguel Díaz-Canel regime and hostility towards the United States on networks. Among these publications appears the slogan: “Commander in Chief, ORDER! We are going to wage war if imperialism comes, IF IT DARE!”
In another entry from 2022, he bragged about meeting with Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo —one of the five Cuban spies of the Wasp Network convicted in the United States—, whom he called “a great person in our history.” “It was a huge pleasure to meet this great man in our history. Yes, himself, our Gerardo,” he wrote on Facebook in 2022.
The report indicates that, once in Florida, Rodríguez Gracia deleted his previous profiles and opened new accounts, in which he was seen with his wife and his pet in a home on the outskirts of Jacksonville. Martí News He adds that after being contacted for comment, he deleted his new Instagram profile and did not respond to a request for comment.
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba included his name in a file which, according to Domínguez, was handed over to US authorities. “His name is part of the list of more than 100 repressors that we have delivered to Congressman Carlos Giménez. He sent it to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, whom he has pressured for answers and the deportation of each of those characters,” the investigator told Martí News.
The case of Rodríguez Gracia is not isolated: former officials, soldiers, agents and propagandists of the Cuban regime, after serving the internal control apparatus on the Island, have entered the United States through different immigration programs such as parole humanitarian or the CBP One app.
Among them, stand out Jorge Luis Vega García (Veguita)former lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior and former head of the Agüica and Canaleta prisons, whom several former political prisoners accuse of systematic torture and abuse; and former judge Melody González Pedraza, beneficiary of the parole humanitarian, recently deported to the island after more than a year in prison in the United States, due to his role in the conviction of four young people due to pressure from State Security in Villa Clara.
A case similar to that of Rodríguez Gracia is that of Bruce Iam González Marreroa former propagandist for the regime who, after spreading hate messages against opponents on state television, requested asylum in Kentucky.
