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elTOQUE finds no evidence of the alleged entry of Haitian gangs into Cuba

Facebook posts have since late October blamed Haitian gang members for the murder of a family in San Antonio del Sur; the independent outlet found no official records, news reports or verifiable testimony to support it.

Since late October, several Facebook pages and profiles have spread alarming messages about an alleged incursion by Haitian gangs on Cuba's eastern coasts and warned of supposed killings in Guantánamo. The most widely shared version claims a family was murdered and dismembered in the municipality of San Antonio del Sur and mentions acts of cannibalism.

elTOQUE checked those posts and found no official records, no reports from the independent or state press, and no verifiable testimony confirming the crime, the identity of the alleged victims or the landing of gang members on Cuban territory. The most alarming account has circulated since October 28 on a Facebook page and comes with false images and material identified as generated by artificial intelligence.

The disinformation rests on a real event: on October 18, four air technicians of the Salvadoran Air Force serving in the United Nations backed Gang Suppression Force disappeared after an armed attack on their armored vehicle near Port-au-Prince. Nayib Bukele blames the gangs and says they were kidnapped; on October 28 his foreign ministry confirmed the deployment of more than 2,000 soldiers in Haiti.

There were also real arrivals of Haitians in Cuba, unrelated to gangs: on October 26, five Haitian fishermen were helped by residents of Aguadores, in Santiago de Cuba, after five days adrift, according to the Cuban Red Cross. In September, 17 Haitian migrants, 14 men, one woman and two minors, reached Playa Siboney after seven days adrift and were repatriated at the end of the month. elTOQUE notes that those cases provide no evidence of gang members among them or of violence against the Cuban population.

The outlet warns that the mass spread of this content can cause fear, stigmatization and rejection of Haitians, and that it revives a cannibalism narrative already debunked in another context and transfers it to the Cuban one.

Sources: elTOQUE · Martí Noticias

Data updated: 2026-11-04T04:15:00.000Z

elTOQUE finds no evidence of the alleged entry of Haitian gangs into Cuba | Yamacoa Observatory