AREQUIPA, Peru – “I gave them to them alive,” claimed the mother of Cuban Nesky Gabriel Escalona Ortíz during the young man’s funeral. The boy was completing the Compulsory Military Service (SMO) established by the Castro regime when his disappearance was reported, and about six days later his body was found.
At the funeral, Escalona Ortíz’s mother confronted the soldiers from the military unit who attended the cemetery, according to a video published by the user The Scissors on Facebook.
“Everyone get lost. I gave them to them alive and look how they gave me my son, for defending the Revolution,” the mother questioned through tears while the officers stood aside under a tree.
“My son was sick and they didn’t take him to a hospital, none, none. (…) I asked them and no one took him to a hospital,” he added shouting.
The material, lasting just over a minute, includes statements from the deceased’s father, who comments on the hardships and difficulties to which SMO recruits are exposed.
“They mistreat them, 24 hours a day on guard without food or anything, with an AKM that they cannot bend over or sit down, and for pleasure. Green for what, to defend the country, not to abuse children. “This country is shit, these f—ing communists,” he lamented.
Nesky Gabriel Escalona Ortíz was barely 19 years old at the time of his death and lived in the Habana del Este municipality, Havana. He was found hanging and in a state of putrefaction near his military unit, located in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque.
According to the publication, the young man’s parents hold the bosses and officers responsible for his death, pointing out the mistreatment of those who were subjected him and the other recruits who are there against their will.
Between December 31, 2023 and August 2024, at least five young people died on the Island while serving the SMO (three of them committed suicide).
Given the lack of transparency of the Cuban authorities, news about deaths during compliance with the SMA have emerged in independent press media and social networksafter complaints from family and friends.
According to the Cuba Archive (AC), of the 79 documented deaths and disappearances in 2023 and attributed to the Cuban State, 11 occurred during the SMO. Furthermore, of the nine cases registered as “extrajudicial murders”, one is that of a young man who was serving the SMA: Ernesto Miranda was barely 18 years old; His family refuted the official report of alleged suicide.
