Alleged photo of former Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque in Havana goes viral on social media.

A supposed photo of former Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque is causing a stir on social media.

The internet user Siro Cuartel shared on his Facebook profile an image of one of the main figures of power in Cuba from the late 90s until 2009, when he was ousted from his position by Raúl Castro himself.

In the image, a man who closely resembles Pérez Roque is seen standing against the window frame of the FOCSA building in El Vedado while looking at his cellphone.

"You take out the FOCSA that's in the back, put in a Home Depot, and Felipito looks exactly the same: wrecked," Siro Cuartel mocked.

Pérez Roque's photo has been replicated several times, and dozens of internet users comment on his current appearance, which is so different from the one he had when he was in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"He looks like a vagabond, I think he sells on a cot, just by his appearance," said independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada.

"Sad and dilapidated, the poor find themselves without the energy to condemn," affirmed activist Lara Crofs.

"Superpedante, if I had him right there I would laugh in his face. He has, let's see, what he was supposed to have: Churre!" expressed a Cuban emigrant.

"Nothing to do with the luxurious life that he flaunted with money coming from, you know where, now he is just another Cuban," emphasized a woman from Havana.

Felipe Pérez Roque, an electronic engineer who rose as a leader of the University Student Federation (FEU), had a meteoric political career that reached its peak when he was promoted to chancellor in 1999. Ten years later, he suffered a spectacular fall from power when he was "fired" and replaced by the current minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

Three days later, he resigned from his positions in the State Council, the Communist Party, and the National Assembly of People's Power, through a letter in which he acknowledged "the mistakes made."

Upon the public announcement of his removal, the late dictator Fidel Castro, who had already delegated to his brother, wrote about his dismissal and that of the former secretary of the executive committee of the Council of Ministers, Carlos Lage:

"I have never underestimated human intelligence, nor the vanity of men. [...] No injustice has been committed against certain individuals. Neither of the two mentioned by the cables as most affected uttered a word to express any discontent. It was not at all a lack of personal courage. The reason was different. The allure of power for which they knew no sacrifice awakened in them ambitions that led them to an undignified role. The external enemy was filled with illusions about them," he expressed.