Morena Spokesperson Distances Deputies from Support for Raul Castro, Cuba Solidarity Group

ByMaritza Pérez

This article by Maritza Pérez originally appeared in the May 25, 2026 edition of El Economista.

The Morena party in San Lázaro distanced itself from the statement issued by the Mexico-Cuba Brotherhood Group, made up of Morena deputies who, after expressing their support for the former president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, provoked direct criticism from the US Under Secretary of State, Christopher Landau.

Members of the “Mexico-Cuba Brotherhood Group”, which was created after the Chamber of Deputies was unable to establish the Mexico-Cuba Friendship Group, expressed, through a formal statement bearing the Morena logo, their rejection of the formal accusations made by the US against Raúl Castro, related to the downing of two US planes on February 24, 1996.

“The accusation does not represent a step towards accountability, as the US government claims, but rather the reinforcement of acts of political coercion against the sovereignty of a nation,” the statement said, which was released on behalf of the parliamentary group and shared by the Cuban Embassy in Mexico.

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, with Morena’s parliamentary spokesperson, Arturo Ávila. Ávila owns IBN Industrias Militares which has sold armoured vehicles to the government of El Salvador and holds training sessions with the Israeli weapons manufacturer, IMI systems.

This led to public questioning from US Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who noted that “what strikes me is that there is not a single person named who personally takes responsibility for this statement and the support for an openly dictatorial regime that has not allowed a free election in 67 YEARS!” he wrote on social media.

Landau even argued that the island’s economic situation forces people to “eat from garbage dumps.”

Following the controversy, Arturo Ávila, spokesperson for the Morena parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies, issued a statement distancing the group from the communiqué, arguing that “the official positions of our group are constructed and issued in accordance with the mechanisms established in our Internal Regulations, and are published through official accounts.”

He also said that, since it was not published on official accounts, the support for Raúl Castro corresponds to the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and political representation of friendship groups or individual deputies.