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Violence is not always expressed with clubs or shouting. In Cuba, it also manifests in empty shelves, in the trash in the corners, and in the darkness of an endless blackout.
This is warned by Ulises Toirac in a text published on Facebook this Thursday, where the comedian - known for decades of intelligent satire - delivers one of his harsh reflections: a denunciation of the structural violence that comes with living without food, without medicine, without electricity… and without a future.
It is neither a cry nor a pamphlet. It is a bitter observation, written with serenity but without concessions. The trigger was a twelve-hour blackout in Havana. The diagnosis, however, encompasses six decades of economic distortion and social wear.
A climb of nearly seven decades
Toirac acknowledges the impact of the confrontation with the United States, but rejects any simplistic or exculpatory viewpoints.
"It is true that there are many measures from the U.S. aimed at entrenching the crisis. Call it a blockade, an embargo, or simply measures. It is a fact, they affirm."
And he adds that this is "the result of a frontal stance of Cuban policy regarding the demands of that government. And this includes a complete package that ranges from support for leftist movements (not just verbal support, but logistical as well), to one-party rule, including the asylum of individuals sought by the law both in the U.S. and in other countries."
This is not a recent conflict nor an isolated chapter: “The escalation of responses and counter-responses is long. It spans almost 67 years.”
Permanent structural deformation
However, the matter goes further. The Cuban economy, Toirac says, did not collapse: it simply never worked.
"The situation, which had been declining, is now (in aviation terms) a nosedive."
“The economy of 'revolution' has never been able to stand on its own feet, and instead of taking steps to prevent a structural distortion, measures were simply implemented that made it more profound,” he states.
From their perspective, what we are experiencing today is not a crisis, but rather the confirmation of a system's failure.
“I see no way out on this path. On the contrary (and I’ve been saying this for some time), we are only heading towards greater economic distortion, fewer possibilities for recovery, and broader layers of misery,” he diagnoses.
Blackouts and stagnation
The chain is clear: without energy, there is no production; without production, there are no revenues; without revenues, there is no way to import what the country does not produce.
What gets interrupted with every blackout is not just electricity: it is the minimal possibility of building a future.
The criticism does not overlook the internal social fractures. There are still those who support the system - Toirac acknowledges - but he points out that there are several reasons:
"Out of necessity, double standards, or simply because they genuinely believe in the possibility of recovery."
"That is by no means the entire population. The reality is that we live in a society of inequalities where the rich and the very poor coexist. This is not what is known as a just society."
The violence of lacking a future
It is towards the end where Toirac delivers one of his most devastating phrases, which gives meaning to the text and the historical moment it denounces:
"I am as opposed to explicit violence as I am to that which involves poverty and a lack of future."
That poverty is not just a lack of material resources. It is a form of constant aggression: the inability to envision a life, to imagine something different, to escape the daily grind.
And the question that concludes his reflection, stark and unembellished, takes your breath away: "What remains? The Holocaust?"
Ulises Toirac's publication does not offer easy solutions or answers. Nor does it intend to.
It is a warning, an act of civic honesty, and a stark portrayal of a society that is fading away. Not only due to a lack of electricity, but also because of a lack of direction, justice, and truth.
When someone like Toirac—who has made humor a form of resistance—abandons irony to write from a place of seriousness, it is not because he has given up. It is because there is no longer room to pretend that laughter is enough.
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