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During a tour of Asia, the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel received a symbolic donation of 15 million dollars from the government of Vietnam on Monday in Hanoi, raised through a campaign launched in mid-August by the Vietnamese Communist Party.
According to the chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the amount was gathered by two million Vietnamese citizens as part of the initiative "65 Years of Vietnam-Cuba Friendship."
The ceremony, marked by protocol and hugs among party comrades, took place amid the worsening economic crisis in Cuba, characterized by a chronic shortage of food, medicine, and fuel, along with daily blackouts that suffocate the daily lives of millions of Cubans.
Although the campaign is presented as a “historic act of solidarity”, it is striking that a country with its own developmental challenges is channeling millions toward an island governed by an elite that has not demonstrated a genuine willingness to reform a failed economic model.
Moreover, the public distribution of funds during an official visit, with Díaz-Canel smiling for the cameras, raises questions about the use and transparency of those resources.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, it has not been specified how the 15 million will be used, nor what mechanisms will ensure that this money directly benefits the population and does not end up in the inefficient machinery of the state apparatus. The lack of independent institutions and public audits leaves a wide margin for opacity.
During the meeting, agreements were also signed to produce rice in Cuba between 2025 and 2027, an ambitious goal for a country that struggles to stabilize its electricity supply or provide for its network of bakeries.
The revolutionary symbolism that both regimes insist on projecting loses strength when faced with concrete realities: the solidarity among communist governments does not nourish the average Cuban, nor does it address the deep distortions of a system that has brought the country to its worst crisis in decades, while its leaders continue to travel and receive donations with solemnity and without accountability.
A collapsed economy and weary allies
The million-dollar donation from Vietnam comes at a time when even the regime's closest allies are publicly expressing their frustration.
In July, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son directly requested Havana to eliminate the obstacles hindering investments from its companies on the Island. This complaint adds to those previously issued by China and Russia, two traditional partners that are now limiting their financial commitment due to the lack of structural reforms and the regime's inability to meet its financial obligations.
China, for instance, canceled the annual sugar import quota and has suspended projects due to unpaid debts. And although it still maintains certain trade exchanges, its investments have plummeted, while Beijing has sued the Cuban government for multi-million dollar defaults.
Vietnam, for its part, has donated rice, has sent funds, and has invested in key sectors of the Cuban economy such as energy, agriculture, and biotechnology. However, its patience seems to be running out. Its companies are facing the same bureaucratic obstacles, institutional delays, and financial opacity that have deterred other investors.
According to Cuban economists from the think tank 'Cuba Siglo XXI', the Island is on the verge of default and has become one of the most risky investment destinations in the world, due to its unpaid external debt, lack of legal and economic reforms, and its state structure controlled by military conglomerates such as GAESA.
The recent judicial victory of the CRF I Limited fund in UK courts, which enables the seizure of Cuban assets abroad to collect debts, further exacerbates this situation.
Diplomatic mendacity and official cynicism: The regime survives on donations while hiding its wealth
The reception of the Vietnamese donation is part of a systematic strategy of the Cuban regime: institutionalized international begging.
While the country sinks into the worst economic crisis of recent decades, with schools lacking teachers and materials, hospitals without medication, and families deprived of basic food, the government travels from country to country begging for solidarity and showcasing every gesture as if it were a diplomatic achievement.
The official exaltation of the story of a Vietnamese girl who broke her piggy bank to donate 200 dollars to Cuba starkly summarizes this phenomenon.
The Cuban ambassador in Vietnam and the state media themselves elevated the childish gesture to the level of a feat, ignoring the reality of childhood in Cuba, marked by deprivation: children without milk, without medicine, and not even with piggy banks to break.
But the most outrageous contrast emerges when it is revealed —and concealed by those in power— that the military conglomerate GAESA, the economic arm of the Armed Forces, controls assets worth over 18 billion dollars, according to research and specialized sources.
This figure has not received any official statement, nor explanations about its origin, its destination, or its possible use for the benefit of the population.
It is outrageous that a regime which owes billions to its creditors, does not fulfill its financial obligations, has been sued in international courts, and does not allow audits or transparency, shamelessly celebrates the donation from a foreign minor, while GAESA accumulates wealth that does not translate into well-being for its citizens.
While the Cuban people endure scarcity and misery, the ruling elite capitalizes on every foreign dollar as if it were a revolutionary achievement.
Instead of taking responsibility and transforming a failed economic model, it prefers to rely on the rusty crutch of its internationalist narrative, using external solidarity as a propaganda patch to hide its own failure.
In short, the story of the Vietnamese girl is more than just an emotional anecdote: it is a reflection of the institutional cynicism of a system that demands sacrifices from the world while concealing its millions and denying fundamental rights to its own people.
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