On January 15, a Cuban Television camera captured several State Security agents at the MINFAR headquarters.
MIAMI, United States. – The independent medium theTOUCH identified as Rafael Pupo Carnet the official of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) who several victims of repression in Cuba know as “Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos” or “Saucedo”, and to whom they attribute interrogations, threats, harassment and other forms of coercion against journalists and artists.
On January 15, a Cuban Television camera captured the agent at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), when he was waiting for his turn to parade in front of the remains of Cuban soldiers killed in Venezuela during the United States special operation, on January 3.
According to theTOUCHthe agent identified as Pupo Carnet resides in the Playa municipality, in Havana, and was born in 1967. The media explained that he arrived at his identity with the help of two sources who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals from the State.
theTOUCH He also detailed that one of the sources provided the place of residence of the repressor, located in the neighborhood known as Reparto Flores (Playa municipality), and another provided the year of birth and the name “Rafael Pupo Carnet.” With this data, the media said it had verified the existence of the name by searching for it in “identity databases leaked years ago in Cuba,” where it found “an exact match: Rafael Pupo Carnet, a resident of the Flores neighborhood.”
The media recalled that “it is common for State Security agents and other members of the MININT (…) not to use their true identity on social networks,” and that it is also common for them not to identify themselves with their real names during actions against citizens that the MININT classifies as “counterrevolutionaries.”
By tracking alleged relatives of the repressor on social networks, theTOUCH came to a video of a wedding published on January 17, 2024, where Rafael Pupo Carnet appears, which finally served to confirm the identity of the officer “Juan Carlos”.
In that video, Pupo Carnet is seen checking his phone, then looking up when the bride enters and applauding “effusively,” while “the other guests remain seated” and he appears “standing, smiling.” The media stated that it showed the video to five victims, and that “they all agreed that it is the same person: the well-known ‘Juan Carlos’.”
After the public exhibition of the image, theTOUCH reported that testimonies multiplied about the repressive activity attributed to the officer. The journalist Yennys Hernández Molina reported on Facebook that the agent told her he was “Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos” and that, according to what he has learned in recent days “while carrying out his own investigation”, Pupo Carnet “has identified himself with other people as Adalberto, Augusto, Saucedo or Roberto González; and has also presented himself with the charges of colonel or captain.”
Hernández Molina claimed to have registered at least “15 people repressed or interrogated [por Rafael Pupo]” and described him as “irascible, fond of threats.”
The report also noted that, in that same tribute at MINFAR, another agent identified by his victims with the pseudonym “Darío” appeared. The artist and former political prisoner Hamlet Lavastida said that “a few seconds of video on a state channel” were enough for him to recognize the officer who, according to his complaint on Facebook, introduced himself to him as “Dario” during his “arbitrary detention on June 26, 2021.”
According to theTOUCH that he is an officer of the Instructional Bodies of the Department of State Security of the MININT. Exiled activist Carolina Barrero reported that “Darío” followed her in Havana and “threatened her life” during a “violent interrogation.”
The digital media added that, in addition to Pupo Carnet and “Darío”, other victims recognized several of those present at the tribute and pointed them out as executors of the persecution against independent journalism and critical artists. Activist Tania Tasé stated that the agent identified by several victims as “Hansel Guillermo” would have his real name Hermes del Toro López (35 years old) and that his “last known address” is located in Playa.
The writer and editor Jorge Fernández Era stated that “Hansel Guillermo” has repressed him in arbitrary arrests and episodes of forced disappearance, and quoted him as follows: “He boasts of his ability to put on handcuffs, and he tightens them more if one complains.”
