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Yordanka Battle Moré responded sharply to Laura María Gil González, daughter of former Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández, who days ago requested on social media that the trial against her father, accused of espionage, embezzlement, and other crimes, be held publicly and broadcasted on television.
Battle, known for her direct style and her criticisms of the Cuban system, dedicated a brief message to the young woman, blending familial empathy with a strong social demand.
"First of all, I want to tell you that you are a good daughter. I understand you; I am one too, and I know the sacrifices that entails," she began. But immediately she drew a line, adding that "not just your dad, even someone who stole a potato from a farm, all Cubans deserve a fair trial... Your dad is not the last Coca-Cola in the Sahara Desert."
In his post, Battle starkly portrayed the daily life of the average Cuban, noting that "the people you now refer to are immersed in securing food, medicine, hygiene products, trying to communicate with their relatives, or getting their child out of 'El Kimico'. A significant percentage of the Cuban population couldn't care less about what happens to your esteemed father. Life is tough, kid! So put on a helmet and hold on to the brush, because they already took your ladder!"
Battle closed his message with a statement of principles: "Cuba belongs to Cubans, regardless of their political spectrum. There are those like me who want a liberal Cuba, where life is loved and respected, the free market economy thrives, and individual rights are upheld."
Yordanka's response, which went viral on social media, encapsulates the feelings of many Cubans who see Gil's case as a reflection of the privileges and disconnection of the elites in the face of the country's crisis.
While Laura Gil invokes the Constitution to demand transparency, voices like Battle's remind us of the contrast between that discourse and the precariousness of those living under a system that does not guarantee the essentials.
The exchange takes place amidst other voices that have joined in criticizing the statement published by the daughter of the former Minister of Economy, the visible face of the country's collapse. Among them was the playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who acknowledged Laura's gesture as “an act of a daughter,” but pointed out that her speech uses the “language of forced submission”, typical, he said, of those who speak under authoritarian regimes.
"It is said one thing so that the censor doesn't punish you, and another so that the people understand what you really want to say," he pointed out.
On his part, journalist José Luis Tan Estrada was more severe and stated that “I cannot feel empathy for the daughter of Alejandro Gil. It is understandable that she defends her father, but in her statement, there is not a single word of empathy towards the Cubans condemned for demanding exactly the same thing: transparency and justice.”
And from the academic sphere, economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo raised the stakes in the debate by demanding the resignation of Miguel Díaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero, stating that Alejandro Gil's case reveals the moral and institutional collapse of the system: “You are not the solution, you are the problem,” he wrote.
In that tension, Yordanka Battle's voice resonates like that of a generation no longer afraid to express what many believe: that in Cuba, the truth of power and that of the people have long since ceased to intersect.
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