Havana/Raudel Alejandro Guerra Hernández, 19 years old, died this Tuesday while serving Active Military Service (SMA) in a military unit in the area of Cidra, province of Matanzas. The young man’s mother, Olga Hernández Rojas, published several messages on Facebook in which she indicated that her son died after suffering an electric shock.
“The current in the unit killed him,” he said when responding to one of the comments about what had happened to the young man. In another response, the woman stated that “33,000 killed him,” which refers to the volts that circulate in the cables that distribute the energy.
In the same accident, another young soldier was affected, “in very serious condition,” said communicator Christian Arbolaez on social networks, who, like Guerra Hernández’s mother, did not explain the circumstances of the accident.
The case is similar to that of Miguel Ángel, a 20-year-old young man from Las Tunas who survived a 33,000-volt electric shock while completing mandatory military service in November 2024 in Havana. His story was made known by Holguín activist Norge Ernesto Díaz Blak, known on social networks as Noly Blak. According to the recruit’s mother, there was no water in the place and Miguel Ángel could not leave his post. To quench his thirst he tried to knock down a coconut using a stick, which made contact with a 33,000 volt line.
He has not received any compensation from the State, despite the serious consequences that the accident left him,
“Yeah, pa’ knock down a coconut And from there I don’t remember anything else,” recalled the young man, who in the video shows serious injuries to his arms, legs, abdomen, head and back. In his testimony, published last July, he denounces that he has not received any compensation from the State, despite the serious consequences that the accident left him, after spending a year and three months hospitalized in the Naval Hospital in Havana.
The death of Guerra Hernández, a native of the town of Navajas, joins two other deaths of young people during the SMA reported last September.
In a report published last week, the Cubalex legal advice center reported the deaths of Yandiel Jurado, 18, in Manzanillo, Granma, and Leordanis Ramón Ricardo Batista, also 18, in a unit of the Youth Labor Army (EJT), in the area of Nipe, Holguín.
According to the report, Jurado died after being shot inside a military unit. “According to testimonies released about the case, another recruit would have manipulated a rifle and there would have been an accidental shot that hit the young man. One of the versions indicates that Yandiel was talking on the phone with his girlfriend when the incident occurred,” the NGO indicated.
“According to the testimonies received, due to his refusal he would have received fines until, finally, Yandiel was sent to carry out his service”
The young man’s mother, Cubalex added, repeatedly opposed her son being incorporated into the SMA: “According to the testimonies received, due to his refusal he would have received fines until, finally, Yandiel was sent to complete his service.”
The second case was that of Leordanis Ramón Ricardo Batista, who died on September 22, around 9 in the morning, while he was in an EJT unit in Nipe. “He had been in Military Service for less than two months. Independent reports place his death in a context related to his mental health and indicate that the young man had received psychological care since he was approximately nine years old for nervous problems,” the report indicated.
Although his family presented documentation about his health history, Ricardo Batista was finally declared fit to comply with the SMA. According to the report, Major Bandera, identified as head of the unit, allegedly used verbal abuse on several occasions, “in addition to subjecting him to strong pressure within the unit.” Likewise, “he would have refused to collaborate with the transfer of the young man to a unit closer to his home in Banes, despite the efforts made by the family and the state in which he was found.”
At least 97 young people have died while performing Military Service in the country, between 2001 and mid-2026
At least 97 young people have died while they were completing their Military Service in the country, between 2001 and mid-2026. The figure was disclosed last July in a report by the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit (Ocac) – an independent entity managed by the think tank Cuba Siglo 21–, which also concludes that suicide is the main cause of death among recruits and warns about an increasingly restrictive system, with little transparency and no mechanisms to demand responsibility when a tragedy occurs.
Of the 97 deaths of young recruits, 33 correspond to suicides, 34% of the total. The report also points out an increase in suicides reported in recent years and highlights that 2025 was the year with the most cases, with 22.
Besides, The Touch documented last September that six of the recruits killed, between 2017 and 2026, were minors –one was 16 and five, 17– and all are among the cases registered as suicides.
