Anti-regime activists in Canada accuse Cuba of using YouTube channel to intimidate them

Thirteen Montrealers say they've been targeted by a campaign of harassment launched by the Cuban government to keep them from protesting against one-party rule on the island.

A social media account which — according to a Cuban defector — is being run by Cuba's state security has been spreading detailed allegations against the 13 men accusing them of trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Canada.

Carlos Andrades said he's one of them. On March 21, he arrived in his native Havana for a visit with his 95-year-old mother. Travelling with him were his Canadian-born daughters and grandson.

Andrades said he has long been active in opposition circles and has been prevented from entering Cuba on previous occasions. He said he travelled on this occasion with some trepidation.

"I have a 95-year-old mother, so I have to go," he said.

Soon after arriving, Andrades said, he was visited at his hotel by a woman in military uniform who gave him a piece of paper ordering him to present himself for an interview at a detention centre operated by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.

His interrogation — by a man who introduced himself as Col. Luis Morales — was videotaped and would shortly be used as one of the elements in an elaborate allegation against him and a dozen fellow Cuban-Canadian dissidents.

Andrades said the interrogators showed him evidence that he had participated in demonstrations and posted comments critical of Communist Party rule. Under new Cuban laws, online criticism can be prosecuted as cyber-terrorism.

"They show you the picture and you have done this, and you have done this. So you are against the wall because you are not in Canada," he said. "Canada cannot protect you in any way."

Andrades said the interrogators also suggested that he was engaged in drug trafficking in order to finance the operations of anti-government YouTubers. They named one in particular: a Montreal-based anti-regime YouTube channel with nearly 90,000 followers.

The arrival of the internet in Cuba has focused the Cuban government's attention on the threat posed by online influencers in exile. It appears to have chosen to strike back using an online weapon — YouTube.

El Guerrero cubano (the "Cuban warrior") is a YouTube account that broadcasts attacks on enemies of the Cuban Communist Party, sometimes by making use of video of interrogations by Cuban state security.

The person behind the Guerrero account does not show their face in the videos. A recent Cuban government defector has identified the individual behind the account as Col. Pedro Orlando Martínez, head of the political wing of Cuba's National Revolutionary Police.

Andrades said that after his interview, he was allowed to leave Cuba with his daughters, much to his relief. But the interview convinced him that he could not risk returning.