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Pro-government profile says Santa Clara Starlink sellers were sentenced to 4 and 5 years
A post by the profile Alejandro Noticias Cuba in a Facebook group claims that several residents of Santa Clara received prison sentences of between four and five years for selling Starlink antennas and that 37 devices were seized, as reported by 14ymedio on Saturday. The profile does not identify those convicted or cite court documents.
Several residents of Santa Clara were sentenced to between four and five years in prison for selling Starlink antennas, according to a post circulated by the pro-government profile Alejandro Noticias Cuba in the Facebook group Mipymes Santa Clara/Piezas de motos. The message claims that 37 satellite connection devices were seized and threatens to extend the penalties to everyone involved in that clandestine market, including carriers and buyers, as reported by 14ymedio.
According to that post, those detained were part of a network that illegally brought in and sold the antennas, and the devices were seized in searches of the homes of those involved and of buyers. The text says that carriers were punished as well and that those who received the equipment were fined 100,000 pesos on top of the confiscation.
The profile does not identify those convicted, does not specify which court issued the sentences and presents no court documents that would make it possible to confirm the events: it attributes the sentences to supposed “sources close to the families of the accused”, according to 14ymedio's verification. The message also demands that citizens report anyone who tries to bring in, transport, sell or buy this equipment, and concludes: “Do not become the next case”, in wording translated by Yamacoa.
What is indeed in the law is the penalty framework. Article 295 of the Criminal Code sets prison terms of three to eight years for anyone who organizes, distributes, finances or profits from unauthorized telecommunications services, as well as for anyone who sells the equipment used for those activities.
The crackdown on this equipment does not start now. In April 2025 customs seized 20 satellite kits and 85 routers, after official bodies had warned of fines and confiscations, and in May 2026 the Communications Ministry updated import regulations and kept the restrictions on satellite terminals that operate without agreements with the government. Despite the bans, 14ymedio documented in April the presence of these antennas in Havana, Matanzas and Santa Clara, at prices of between 1,300 and 1,800 dollars, and in July it gathered accounts from users paying between 50 and 80 dollars a month to use those connections.
The post invokes the armed incident in Corralillo, in Villa Clara, last February, when the authorities intercepted a vessel coming from the United States and, according to 14ymedio's account, half of those aboard died; among the equipment seized was, according to the official version, a Starlink station. The newspaper notes that the message leaves out a distinction: the Starlink equipment sold to private customers is a commercial satellite internet service, not the Starshield systems SpaceX develops for defense applications.
The post drew numerous critical reactions in the Facebook group itself. “Legalize other companies to compete with the terrible service of the Etecsa monopoly and you will see that nobody risks losing that much money”, demanded the user Edel Gálvez, in remarks translated by Yamacoa. Others argued that the authorities should improve the state service instead of persecuting the alternatives.
Sources: 14ymedio
Data updated: 2026-10-24T16:00:00.000Z