While hundreds of families in Santiago de Cuba continue to be without shelter or real assistance following Hurricane Melissa, a group of residents from the municipality of Baconao staged a scene this Thursday that highlights the indoctrination with which the Cuban regime attempts to shape the public response to the tragedy.
During a visit by Miguel Díaz-Canel to affected communities, some residents expressed feeling “satisfied with his unconditional support” and thanked the leader “for feeling the pain of others” in an intervention that was recorded and broadcast by the state media.
"We are not alone, not everything is lost here, there is revolution here", added one of the women interviewed, almost literally repeating the propagandistic language that usually accompanies the television coverage of natural disasters on the island.
The statements, laden with forced political loyalty, stand in stark contrast to the desperation and real distress experienced in other areas of eastern Cuba, where thousands of victims claim to have lost everything without receiving state support.
In the video broadcast by the state television, the neighbors also express their gratitude to “the comrades of the evacuation” and “those who have brought donations,” despite the fact that the delivery of aid remains scarce and managed under political control, local sources report.
Just a few days earlier, in the neighboring town of El Cobre, Díaz-Canel was involved in a moment of tension when he responded with contempt to a woman who claimed her lost bed: “And I don't have one to give you right now either,” the leader replied.
The episode, recorded by residents and shared by the influencer Alex Otaola, depicted a ruler lacking empathy for the suffering of those affected.
After the passage of Hurricane Melissa, Santiago de Cuba and other eastern provinces are facing a critical situation: roofs torn off, lost crops, prolonged blackouts, and an almost total collapse of transportation and electricity supply.
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