Cuban Prosecutor's Office requests up to 30 years for Ardenys García Álvarez and 29 accused of alleged armed plot

The Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Cuba delivered this weekend its request for conviction against 30 people accused of organizing, financing and executing an alleged armed uprising plan aimed at destabilizing the political and social order on the island, according to documents cited by Martí News on July 12, 2026. The main person involved is Ardenys García Álvarez, whom the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Havana asks for 30 years in prison; the other 29 face requests between 10 and 25 years. The accusatory document describes weapons, armed cells and planned sabotage, but does not clarify whether these actions were carried out.

The accusation: jet skis, weapons and cells in four provinces

According to the Conclusions of the State reproduced by Martí Noticias and CiberCuba, García Álvarez – a 40-year-old citizen of Cienfuegos who had illegally emigrated to the United States in 2014 – clandestinely entered the national territory on October 31, 2023 along the coast of Matanzas aboard a jet ski. The prosecution maintains that he transported firearms, ammunition, knives and radio communication equipment to create armed cells in Cienfuegos, Camagüey, Las Tunas and Santiago de Cuba.

The document describes a broader plan: attacks against authorities of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), sabotage to sugarcane fields and tourist centers, and pressure to force the resignation of leaders through coercion. It also requests the confiscation of assets seized in the operation, including five pistols and hidden ammunition, according to the MININT balance sheet released in July 2024.

Origin of the case and official version of 2024

The Cuban government had announced the neutralization of the alleged plan on July 7, 2024 in Granma: The MININT detained García Álvarez as the "main executor" of actions "conceived in US territory" and prevented, according to Havana, the realization of the plans. The next day, state television broadcast evidence in a special that the official newspaper summarized on its website.

In that presentation, Colonel Víctor Álvarez Valle of the MININT stated that the detainee entered the Matanzas channel with a jet ski registered in Florida and that he was carrying five pistols of different brands (American Tactical, Smith & Wesson, Steyr, Taurus, among others). The current accusation links the financing to the organization The New Cuban Nation in Arms, led from Florida by William Cabrera González, described as a "terrorist" by the Cuban State, in collaboration with the group Auto Defensa del Pueblo.

The version of the family and the rhythm of the process

Marta Álvarez, mother of the accused, rejected the official narrative in statements to Martí Noticias: «I had been living in the United States for almost 13 years. He returned to Cuba on a water bicycle on October 29, 2023, and has been locked in a cell all that time. He insisted that his son is a "patriot," not a criminal. The prosecution, for its part, points out that García Álvarez would have received military training in Florida.

The case draws attention due to the duration of the preventive detention: more than two and a half years between the arrest (October 2023) and the formal delivery of the sentencing request (July 2026), a long period even for State security processes in Cuba. Martí Noticias and CiberCuba also emphasize that the prosecutor's document itself does not confirm that the attacks or sabotage described have been carried out, which weakens – according to these media – the story about the consummated severity of the plot.

Context in the United States

An investigation by Telemundo 51 published in July 2024 noted that federal records in Texas They link a man with the same name to charges of “conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants”, in a file different from the one presented by the Cuban regime on television. Telemundo documented that García Álvarez was arrested in New Mexico on August 10, 2023 and that the case was transferred to El Paso; The report indicated that he did not declare guilty in that case and that the regime did not mention that background when exposing the alleged plot.

What's next

The Prosecutor's request is a step prior to the court's ruling; It does not imply automatic condemnation. The 30 defendants face a range of crimes that in the Cuban penal code can lead to decades in prison. For readers abroad, the case concentrates several common axes of Cuban politics: accusations of terrorism financed from Florida, criticism of the procedural slowness, memes and skepticism on networks after the Razones de Cuba program of 2024, and the absence – according to independent media – of public proof that the armed plan had come off paper.

MARGENEZ summarizes the tax request of July 12, 2026 according to Martí Noticias: 30 years for Ardenys García Álvarez, 10-25 years for 29 alleged collaborators, confiscation of weapons and assets, and a conspiracy story that the State's own conclusions do not certify as executed.