“It’s too much, those children are in danger of death (…) I try to raise awareness among the Cuban people in general, not just the mothers.”
HAVANA, Cuba- Compulsory Military Service (SMO) has been an issue surrounded by silence and fear for decades. However, more and more voices are being raised to denounce the consequences that this practice has on young people and their families. A Cuban mother, an opponent of the regime, has started an investigation and an awareness campaign that seeks to make visible cases of abuse and deaths linked to military service.
Alicia Alonso Morejón’s initial motivation was personal: the fear that her son, still small, would grow up and be forced to perform military service with which she does not agree. “I discovered that there was no database, that there was no constant struggle on the issue of children and compulsory military service in Cuba,” he explains.
Thus, in 2020, it began to collect information from independent media such as Cubanet, CyberCuba, The Touch, Cuba Archivein addition to complaints on social networks and Facebook groups such as No to Military Service in Cuba (created by her as a space for reporting) and No More Deaths in Cuban Military Serviceas well as the page that exiled journalist Yosvani Malleta has on that platform, among others.
To date, he claims to have managed to document more than sixty cases, some of which reveal a heartbreaking panorama. Among the most shocking is that of Annier González Acosta, a 19-year-old young man who committed suicide while on guard duty at a prison in Matanzas. It also alludes to unclarified disappearances, such as those of Alfredo Guerra Rivera (2009) and Reinier Porras Cervantes (2022).
Other stories show medical negligence or violence. For her, the case of Dayron Pupo Mastrapa is one of the most controversial: it was officially reported that he died of a sudden heart attack, but when he opened the coffin, his father discovered bruises on his face and missing teeth. “They are heartbreaking cases that hurt the soul, and there are many others,” he assured Cubanet.
According to independent reports, since 2021 there have been at least 117 victims between deaths and permanent consequences within Compulsory Military Service, some linked to suicides, negligence, accidents and unattended illnesses.
In 2022, during the industrial fire most serious in the history of Cuba, fourteen young military service recruits died when facing a fire of enormous proportions without adequate preparation or equipment. Most were between 18 and 19 years old when they were exposed to a lethal scenario without the minimum necessary protection.
In January 2025 another group of nine soldiers lost his life in an explosion that occurred in a military unit in Holguín. The authorities offered contradictory versions, while relatives denounced a lack of information, irregularities in the investigation and pressure to remain silent.
For Alonso Morejón, ambassador to the United States of the civil association Cubanos Libres in Uruguay, opposition to military service has become a particular cause. His son has already turned 18 and now faces threats of prison if he does not appear when called by the army.
“They summoned him to appear on January 19 and he did not go. The threats are clear, either he shows up to pass the service or they impose a fine, they summon him again and, if he does not appear again, they will pass his case to the police so that they can file an accusation against him and he can go to jail for three or five years. The repression against opponents and their families is even more severe,” the mother denounces with fear.
In collecting data, he says he faces a constant obstacle: fear. Even after the death of young people, many parents refuse to speak out for fear of reprisals. “You feel helpless, because you cannot raise your voice for those victims who need justice to be done to them one day,” confesses the activist.
“It’s too much, those children are in danger of death inside,” stated the interviewee, who on January 27 confirmed on social networks that her son will not defend the dictatorship. “I try to raise awareness among the Cuban people in general, not just the mothers. I ask that they help and support these children, raise your voices“, that they unite in the same cause and say no to compulsory military service.”
Alicia Alonso Morejón emigrated from Cuba to Uruguay in 2017. Two years later she settled in the United States, from where she remains active as a dissenting voice against the Cuban regime.
Following the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by elite forces of the US army on January 3, the island dusted off the doctrine of “the war of all the people” and since then has mobilized students and young state workers to participate in military exercises that simulate a battle against US troops.
In this scenario, organizations such as the Patmos Institute have shown fear of the possibility of massive recruitment.
From its blog, coordinated by the Cuban priest Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso, on the ninth the institute launched a call for young people of recruiting age to take advantage of conscientious objection, warning that the dictatorship uses its soldiers as cannon fodder, against its own people and to destabilize the well-being of sister nations.
The publication also includes those who have already been recruited and “are part of military forces based on an evil system like the one that prevails in Cuba,” who are asked to “refuse to obey orders that go against their own dignity as human beings, but worse still, go against the dignity of their people, or that of other nations.”
