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The official musician Arnaldo Rodríguez, director of the group El Talismán, a name that shone brightly in the early 2000s but now only survives in patriotic acts of the government, reappeared this Monday to publicly align himself with the regime's offensive against the independent medium El Toque.
He did so with a message on Facebook where he echoes the script of State Security and accuses those who defend the portal of having lost "their shame, decorum, and ability to reason."
His publication comes at the most intense moment of the state campaign against El Toque, which has become one of the preferred targets of official propaganda for publishing the Representative Rate of the Informal Market (TRMI), a tool that millions of Cubans consult daily to navigate the lack of reliable economic information.
In his message, Arnaldo asserts that the government faces "a titanic task": fighting against the "external enemy," the "internal errors," and, above all, against the "know-it-all scientists and local sellouts" who, according to him, unjustly blame the State.
For the musician, El Toque is not a victim of a defamation campaign, but rather part of the enemy narrative against the Revolution. However, the reality that the regime tries to cover up tells a different story.
Only in the past few weeks, the state machinery launched a coordinated operation to attempt to discredit the independent media.
The State Security circulated manipulated audio using artificial intelligence to implicate its director in alleged financial agreements; Humberto López accused him on television of “financial terrorism”, “currency trafficking,” and “tax evasion”; Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez mentioned “evidence” that was never presented; and the Central Bank reiterated the official narrative blaming the TRMI for the exchange crisis.
All of this is happening amidst the highest inflation of the last few decades, prolonged blackouts, and a Cuban peso that keeps falling.
Voices that debunk the official narrative
But, while Arnaldo Rodríguez accuses those who defend El Toque of being "collaborators," the response from economists, journalists, and citizens has been overwhelming.
The Cuban academic based in Colombia Mauricio de Miranda described as a “tall tale” the notion that a digital platform could destabilize an economy ravaged by decades of mismanagement.
Ariel Terrero, a government-friendly journalist, admitted that blaming El Toque is “grotesque” and lacks economic foundation. And specialists like Ileana Díaz, Oscar Fernández, and Hiram Marquetti have pointed directly to the lack of a functional currency exchange market, partial dollarization, unbacked monetary issuance, and the Central Bank's inability.
For his part, the director of El Toque, José Jasán Nieves, responded on Sunday reaffirming his commitment to democracy and denouncing the harassment by the regime, which includes attempts to fabricate criminal charges and acts of repudiation even abroad.
The offensive against El Toque does not aim to clarify anything, but rather to create a useful enemy that diverts the accumulated social frustration from years of economic incompetence. In this script, figures like Arnaldo Rodríguez play the role of repeating the official narrative to attempt to discredit those who present uncomfortable data.
Meanwhile, the reality that the government tries to hide remains the same that millions of Cubans live daily: insufficient wages, blackouts, inflation, and a country increasingly reliant on the informal market that the State is unable to control.
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