Gerardo Hernández Sends Unexpected Birthday Greetings to Javier Sotomayor

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, a former Cuban spy sentenced to two life terms in the United States, currently serves as the national coordinator for the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). On Tuesday, he took to Facebook to wish high jump world record holder Javier Sotomayor a happy 59th birthday.

"The pencil mark of 2.45 meters must still be on the wall of my Victorville, California cell. I made it because we Cubans have a right to boast, being compatriots of the man who has jumped the highest in history. Happy Birthday #JavierSotomayor!" wrote Hernández on his page "Gerardo de Los Cinco," which he often uses to promote regime propaganda.

Links Between Past and Present

Hernández's message references his time spent imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville, where he served the last decade of his sentence. As the head of the infamous Wasp Network, Hernández led a Cuban espionage operation targeting Cuban exile groups in southern Florida during the 1990s.

In December 2001, a Florida federal court sentenced him to two life terms plus 15 years for conspiracy to commit espionage, including involvement in the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes on February 24, 1996, which resulted in four deaths.

From Prisoner to Political Influence

Hernández was released on December 17, 2014, as part of the diplomatic thaw between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro. Since then, the regime has hailed him as a "Hero of the Republic of Cuba" and rewarded him with positions of influence: he took over as national coordinator of the CDR in September 2020 and was appointed to the Council of State in December that year.

The Celebrated Athlete and His Allegiances

The birthday boy, Sotomayor, was born on October 13, 1967, in Limonar, Matanzas. He remains the only athlete to have officially cleared 2.45 meters in the high jump, a record set on July 27, 1993, in Salamanca, Spain, which still stands over 33 years later. He won Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992 and silver in Sydney in 2000.

Sotomayor is known for rarely criticizing the Cuban regime, often expressing admiration for Fidel Castro. In November 2018, he described Castro as "a guide" who made elite Cuban sports possible, asserting, "Fidel Castro is present in every job, every medal, every result, and will be eternally among us."

In June 2019, he went further, publicly thanking Castro for allowing him to compete in the Sydney Olympics despite a doping scandal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where he tested positive for cocaine and was stripped of his gold medal: "I am grateful that Commander Fidel trusted my word. The chance to jump in Sydney was thanks to Fidel."

In a February 2020 interview with La Vanguardia, Sotomayor defended the regime saying, "We are not poor," attributing the country's struggles to the U.S. embargo and dismissing the reality of the shortages faced by the Cuban people.

The birthday greetings from a convicted spy to an athlete who has consistently praised the dictatorship illustrate the symbolic ties the regime fosters between its emblematic figures, even as millions of Cubans endure blackouts, hunger, and repression.