Content creators and independent journalists Nick ShirleyHe reportedly made headlines last year for exposing a massive fraud involving taxpayer funds Minnesota Day Care Systemnow claims he was “almost in cubaShirley said he arrived in Cuba to photograph the island’s severe lack of fuel, food and electricity, and authorities confiscated his camera and gear at the airport.
“I was almost taken hostage in Cuba”
Shirley claims that intelligence agents followed him and his team, almost leading to his arrest because Cuban law prohibits independent reporting. He claimed in a video on X that he and his team were planning an escape via the U.S. Embassy or an early morning flight, but options were limited.
“I was almost taken hostage in Cuba…” Shirley wrote in the video. “I went to Cuba to document the humanitarian crisis, showing what life was like under Communism for over 60 years and now under the U.S. blockade. As soon as I landed, they confiscated all my cameras except my iPhone and had intelligence agents follow me all day until my security detail found out that their spies had followed us to the hotel, where they waited for us all night.”
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He added, “Under communism, there was no freedom of speech and those who exposed the reality or spoke out were imprisoned. My travels without planned Cuban government guidance nearly had me and my security guards held hostage or imprisoned. The situation in Cuba is much worse than anyone could have imagined.”
“Currently, surgeons can only operate with flashlights because there is no power in the hospital’s hotel. Now I’m staying in the only hotel in Havana that has electricity 24-7, 24-7, because it’s the only hotel that works. That’s why I booked this hotel… because their website is the only hotel that operates 24-7,” Shirley said in the video.
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Shirley added that he was “about a mile and a half away from the U.S. Embassy,” adding that going to the embassy could be “our possible way out of this situation.” He claimed that there were three “Cuban spies” near their hotel who “had to figure out how we could escape.”
Shire said he “could be kidnapped” in Cuba, adding, “You deserve to know exactly what’s going on and the risks we’re taking here in Cuba, trying to show people the reality of communism and what’s going on here in Cuba.”
