elTOQUE, an independent Cuban digital media outlet and core member of the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO), was the target of a harassment incident in Mexico City on November 5, 2025. The attack took place during the 14th Latam Festival of Digital Media and Journalism, organized by Distintas Latitudes at the Centro Cultural España, and was directed at José Jasán Nieves, elTOQUE’s Editor-in-Chief and the outlet’s first representative within NEMO.
Around eight individuals gathered outside the venue, holding a poster and a megaphone through which they repeated false accusations and disinformation spread by the Cuban government. For several minutes, they shouted slogans accusing Nieves and elTOQUE of “manipulating Cuba’s economy” and being “mercenaries in the service of imperialism,” echoing the Cuban regime’s propaganda verbatim.
An investigation by elTOQUE later identified the person leading the protest as Iván Carreño, a Mexican citizen affiliated with the Communist Party of Mexico and the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba—a political organization closely linked to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico. Carreño has appeared at public events organized by the Movement, often holding the Communist Party flag and sharing platforms with representatives of the Cuban regime, including Fernando González, current president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and former intelligence agent.
According to his social media posts, Carreño visited Cuba in early 2025 as part of Solidarity Brigades organized by ICAP. He has repeatedly defended the Cuban government, notably during the July 11–12, 2021 protests, and has published videos promoting Havana’s official narrative about the U.S. embargo.
elToque explained that the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, founded in 1996, maintains a direct relationship with the Cuban Embassy and frequently organizes public events framed as solidarity actions. However, these events often replicate the Cuban regime’s practice of political discrimination against dissent. The Embassy amplifies the group’s content on social media and regularly participates in its activities alongside senior Cuban officials and government-affiliated figures.
This is not the first time that individuals associated with the Cuban Embassy in Mexico have promoted or engaged in confrontations against regime critics. In September 2021, Mexican supporters of Havana attacked peaceful demonstrators protesting Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visit to the country, injuring a 15-year-old boy. In November 2022, members of the Communist Party of Mexico physically assaulted Cuban activist Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat.
The recent harassment of elTOQUE comes amid a new coordinated smear campaign against the outlet, led by Cuban officials and state media. The campaign targets elTOQUE’s Informal Market Exchange Rate Index, published since 2021, which the Cuban government falsely accuses of “destabilizing the economy” and “usurping the authority” of the Central Bank.
Such incidents, while presented as spontaneous expressions of free speech, are in fact part of a transnational intimidation strategy. They replicate the Cuban regime’s tactics beyond its borders, using diplomatic and political networks in allied countries to silence independent journalists and media.
elTOQUE has strongly denounced this act of intimidation and reaffirmed its commitment to independent journalism and truth-telling—despite smear campaigns, state security harassment, and the challenges of working in exile.
The Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO) expresses its full solidarity with the team at elTOQUE and its Editor-in-Chief, José Jasán Nieves, in the face of this act of intimidation.
NEMO reaffirms its support for independent media outlets that, like elTOQUE, continue to uphold the principles of free journalism despite censorship, harassment, and repression by authoritarian regimes.
No campaign of defamation or political pressure will silence the vital work that exiled media perform to keep their communities informed and empowered.