Officials deny rumors about children’s kidnappings in Cuba

Officials from the Ministry of Education (MINED) and the Attorney General's Office on Monday denied rumors about the alleged kidnapping of children in schools in Cuba, which have been spread on social networks.

According to the MINED director of Specialized Educational Activities, Mary Carmen Rojas, such statements are absolutely false and politically intentional with the purpose of damaging the image of a country where children are the main concern.

In statements to national television, Rojas said that the MINED has an information system, of reports, incidents and situations, which may occur in more than 11,000 educational institutions nationwide 24 hours a day at the time they happen.

Regarding the alleged kidnapping of a girl in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla, she assured that school official visited the family home and confirmed that it was fake news.

The deputy chief prosecutor of in Havana, Yaimara Angulo, pointed out that there is no evidence in the country of a child who is absent from home for any of these situations: no family has filed a complaint regarding a child having being involved in this kind of incident when leaving school, she added.

The dissemination of this kind of false information on social networks or other media is a crime with severe implications established in the Penal Code, which can lead to up to five years of imprisonment for those responsible, she said.

In the case of parents who encourage or in some way contribute to these acts, they incur, on the one hand, in crimes of public disorder, and on the other, in actions contrary to the integral development of people, by depriving their children of attending school or carrying out other social activities.