The latest issue of ¡Hola! magazine, which exclusively publishes images of the romance between actress Ana de Armas and Manuel Anido Cuesta, the stepson of Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, has outraged the exile community, especially in Miami. The anger primarily comes from those living outside the Island who are not subjected to the information blackout imposed by state or pro-government media, which is the only one with legal access to the majority of the public within Cuba.
Those who are detached from Cuban reality might think that the disgust Cubans feel today for their Hollywood star is merely a passionate response. This time, they are mistaken. Ana de Armas is not despised by her compatriots for being in a relationship with the stepson of Raul Castro's successor, but rather because the actress's new love is an advisor to a dictator who keeps the Cuban people without electricity, water, and the right to protest.
The Communist Party of Cuba, the only legal party in the country, is unable to control an inflation rate that was around 30% in the first half of this year. The situation has become critical since the implementation of economic reforms that the Cuban communists referred to as "Tarea Ordenamiento." They began to apply it in 2021 and suspended it in 2023, acknowledging its failure.
The monumental error resulted in Marino Murillo, known as the czar of economic reforms in Cuba, being excluded from Parliament, followed shortly by the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, who was accused of corruption. However, the problem did not get resolved; it has worsened. Nearly four out of ten Cuban pensioners receive just 1,528 pesos (approximately $4.60 at this week's exchange rate of 1 USD = 328 pesos) per month on the Island. A family-sized pizza in Havana costs 1,100 pesos, while a pound of sugar (2.2 kg) is priced at 550 pesos. This situation has left 89% of Cuban families living in extreme poverty.
Photos of Ana de Armas kissing Díaz-Canel's advisor in the streets of Madrid and dining with him alongside regime lawyers in a trendy restaurant emerge after the total blackout that left the Island in darkness for three days in October. In what country in the world does something like this happen without mass protests? In one where repression is infinitely harsher than blackouts lasting four to ten hours a day. The lack of coverage in international news does not mean it isn’t happening.
For hitting, killing, leaving someone on the road, and attempting to flee the country, a young man in Cuba faces a sentence of up to 9 years. For taking part in the protests on July 11, 2021, sentences can be as high as 23 years in prison. This is what Ana de Armas is whitewashing.
The photos from ¡Hola! magazine featuring the actress with Manuel Anido Cuesta give meaning to Ana de Armas's silence, as she didn’t utter a word about democracy for Cuba even when she was nominated for an Oscar for "Blonde." To put it in perspective, she is the antithesis of Celia Cruz, who left Cuba and died in exile without ever returning to her homeland.
For years, Cubans have respected the silence of Ana de Armas, being the most talented actress in the recent history of Cuba, until it became known that she is in a romantic relationship with a high-ranking official of the dictatorship.
Ana de Armas has never been asked to show empathy towards the more than 1,000 political prisoners currently held in the jails of the Island; nor to condemn the beating recently inflicted on opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer in the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba; nor to support the independent journalists who have been interrogated by State Security and forced to publicly renounce their right to report outside of the official narrative. She has also not been asked to refrain from supporting her brother, the artist Javier Caso, when he was detained by the political police.
His silence had been perceived until this week as a personal choice. Today, it is synonymous with complicity and consent, an implicit support for the leader who, in 2017, boasted about the lack of freedom of expression when he stated, "Let them say we censor, everyone censors."
With so many men in the world, she has chosen the advisor to a leader, who is responsible for the fact that in the last two years, more than half a million Cubans have left the country; that Cuba's population has decreased by 18% between 2022 and 2023; and that crime rates have surged, averaging 2.37 crimes per day, a figure higher than last year.
This is without mentioning the decline of Fidel Castro's two key pillars: Healthcare and Education. Today, the Díaz-Canel government allocates 14 times more budget to tourism than to Health and Social Services. However, the arrival of foreign visitors continues to decline, and at this point, the regime has already abandoned its goal of reaching 3 million tourists for 2024. The Dominican Republic, a direct competitor, attracted 5 million visitors in the first five months of the year.
Unsanitary conditions deter tourists. Havana generates 23,000 cubic meters of waste daily, yet the Cuban regime only collects 68% of this urban refuse. This means that 32% (7,600 m³, equivalent to three Olympic-sized swimming pools) is left on the streets, turning the capital into "a critical focal point of health insecurity." Consequently, there have been outbreaks of dengue, leptospirosis, and oropouche, which have resulted in children dying from complications related to meningitis.
That is the socialist paradise where Ana de Armas celebrated her 35th birthday in May of this year, broadcast on social media by the Cuban acting elite. Those who rise and retire in poverty were able to enjoy images from the restaurant El Cocinero in Havana, where the actress known for her role as Marilyn Monroe marked another year of her idyllic existence.
For her, Cuba is beaches, nightclubs, and friends. They cannot enjoy the same things that Ana de Armas does, like Cuban dissidents such as Omara Ruiz Urquiola, whom the regime prevents from returning to her country, or Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, who have been imprisoned since the protests on July 11, 2021.
That Ana de Armas is having a romance with Díaz-Canel's advisor means she is part of the inner circle of power that suffocates Cuba. This time, the actress has struck a nerve. The Cubans are not buying this, not even with the Louis Vuitton and Estée Lauder brands that keep her as an ambassador.
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