A Miami state representative and leader in the Cuban American community told RedState the Cuban foreign ministry’s claim that a Russian human trafficking ring was responsible for recruiting Cubans to fight with the Russians in Ukraine is a bogus cover story.

“The Cuban Regiment is lying,” said state Rep. Alina Garcia (R.-115th), who used the term for the Cuban regime that does not acknowledge its legitimacy. “The Cuban regiment is the one that's sending the kids there, and the moms are up in arms. The Cuban mothers are up in arms. That's what's happening.”

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

📌#Cuba 🇨🇺counters human trafficking operations aimed for military recruitment purposes.

🔗https://t.co/YHmmUJ0Ppm pic.twitter.com/uF5VyFG2gl

— Cancillería de Cuba (@CubaMINREX) September 5, 2023

Garcia said the regime is reacting to the uproar from Cuban mothers whose sons are sent to fight and die in Ukraine.

“They are--they've always been--Russian partners with the regiment,” she said. 

The state representative said Cubans in Miami are aware of the situation as word filters out of their homeland.

“Everything I know is hearsay, and what they're saying is that they're sending them and that the mothers in Cuba are up in arms, and that's why they put out fake stories to keep lying,” she said. 

“That's why it's out, because the moms and the grandmas are screaming. That's why it's out,” she said.

Florida Republican Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez told CNN that he was also skeptical about a trafficking ring responsible for Cubans fighting in Ukraine.

🚨On @CNN: The Communist regime in #Cuba🇨🇺 has continued to prop-up & support Putin’s murderous war against the people of #Ukraine🇺🇦.

Communist #Cuba has been sending mercenaries to Putin’s Russia for months— Havana isn’t fooling anyone with their latest stunt! pic.twitter.com/mDgpBRBKbt

— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) September 5, 2023

Rey Anthony, another leader in the Cuban-American community, said Cuban families are traumatized by the drafting of their young men to fight in Ukraine.

“There are families in Miami who have been doing interviews in the Spanish language media on their children, their grandchildren, who are in Russia right now, and or coerced into going there to fight for Russia,” he said.

Anthony said there are stories all over Miami about this so-called human trafficking that is run by the Cuban regime itself.

“We're seeing from family members of these young teenagers, and they're in the early 20s, but sometimes they're teenagers, boys, overwhelmingly that they are being coerced,” he said.

Cuba’s defense minister met with the Russian defense minister to work out a deal this summer, he said. “After that, the reports came out that apparently the Russian regime, Putin was going to be paying the Cuban regime about $2,000 a month for these mercenaries in Russia who would be fighting in Ukraine for Putin.

“The regime in Havana operates with its Cold War mentality,” he said. “Russia provides the regime some type of international support, and so the regime reciprocates that.”

More than anything, when the regime sends young Cubans to fight in Ukraine, it proves its own illegitimacy, he said.

“At a time when in Cuba, there's no running water, no food, no electricity, people are demanding freedom over a thousand political prisoners—that’s what they choose to do.” Anthony said.

“Send mercenaries, young boys, to go fight in a foreign land for a dictator that they don't even know.”

Manuel “Manny” Rosales, an advisor with the Washington-based Gold Institute for International Strategies, said it was absurd to think that the Russian government or a Russian crime organization could operate for one day without the permission of the Cuban regime.

“Everything that goes on in Cuba, the regime knows about it or orchestrates it,” he said. 

“It is difficult to understand that they would have an illegal trafficking ring grabbing young Cuban men and sending them to Ukraine,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Rosales said President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration has a soft spot for the Cuban regime, but the regime must now realize the greater affection Biden has for Ukraine. “It sounds like a cover-up.”

Cuba, Russia allies since the Cuban Revolution

The Cuban regime, first led by Fidel Castro, has been friendly with Russia going back to the early days of the Cuban Revolution when Castro identified himself as a Communist and supporter of the then-Soviet Union.

In the days before the Russian incursion into Ukraine, the Russian government renegotiated its debt with the Cuban regime, a sign that the Cuban leadership was onsides.

Then, after the invasion, the Cuban foreign ministry put out a statement defending Russia's right to self-defense.

National Interest reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to disband the Wagner Group mercenaries fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine July 1. 

Putin’s decision could be what sparked the chain of events that led to both the June 23 Wagner Group mutiny and the Aug. 23 death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash.