In recent days, posts on social media have once again highlighted the contrast between the official propaganda of the Cuban regime regarding the healthcare system and the citizen reports that reveal its decline.
Cuban activist and doctor Lucio Enríquez Nodarse published a message on Facebook this Tuesday stating that, after recently highlighting the poor condition of the Dr. Gustavo Aldereguía Lima University General Hospital in Cienfuegos, the center is now trying to project an ideal image.
"They published some 'idyllic' photos of the hospital: clean, shiny, and sparkling. But it turns out that a patient who is currently admitted just sent me these images. And what you see there is very far from those fantasy postcards," she wrote.
Nodarse accompanied the text with photos from inside the hospital, where dirty corridors, leaking ceilings, and damaged furniture can be seen. In another part of his post, he added: “What they do is not medicine; it's ideological marketing. The dictatorship has been selling a healthcare lie for decades while the system falls apart.”
On the hospital's official page, posts appeared shortly before featuring photographs of painted hallways and messages praising the medical staff. “Our doctors, nurses, technicians, and all healthcare personnel work with unwavering commitment, dedication, and a deep love for what they do. We are the hospital of the Cienfuegos family.”
Journalist José Luis Tan Estrada reacted to that post and reported that the hospital "is deleting comments that contradict its publication."
Similarly, the hospital's management issued an official statement in which it described as "false" the claims made by Camagüeyan journalist and activist José Luis Tan Estrada regarding robberies or assaults within the institution. The statement asserted that "no incidents of that nature have been reported" and that "the safety of patients, companions, and staff remains assured." Additionally, it urged the public "not to be manipulated by unverified information" and expressed regret over "the alarm and distress that these unfounded rumors are causing."
Tan Estrada, for his part, reacted by stating that thefts and security incidents do indeed occur, and he published several testimonies to support his claim. “They took the seat from my father-in-law's motorcycle, the gas key, and other things. A nurse who is on duty, who with his salary can't even afford the gas... it's a disaster what people are experiencing,” he wrote.
He added that "at night, hidden men would sneak into the halls to rob. There was no security. Doctors were afraid to walk around in the early hours due to these situations."
In his message, he stated: "Insecurity is not fake news: it is the reality that patients, families, and workers endure in the main medical center of Cienfuegos. I wish the hospital would focus more on solving issues rather than covering them up."
In parallel, other figures associated with the regime have published messages defending the Cuban healthcare system. The young Fabián Alonso, communist leader and doctoral student in Brazil, shared on Facebook images of clean hospitals along with a text stating: “Here are the real-time images they don't want you to see: clean, functional hospitals, with doctors who don't abandon anyone. Hallways where you don't have to pay to breathe. Consultations where no one asks how much you can pay.”
In another post, Alonso compared hospitals in capitalist countries with those in Cuba, describing the former as "overwhelmed" and "lacking compassion," while defending the national system with a discourse of revolutionary pride.
"Yes, there are deteriorated hospitals. Yes, there is a shortage of medications. But here, no one dies for lack of money. Here, we treat patients with what we have — and with what we don’t have, we find a way. Our doctors do not give up. Our nurses do not abandon their posts. Our hospitals, although battered, continue to be trenches of humanity," he wrote.
The images and testimonies shared by citizens contrast with the institutional publications that attempt to showcase well-organized and functional hospitals. "That is what the people experience, not what the official media shows," concluded Lucio Enríquez Nodarse.
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