The leader Miguel Díaz-Canel once again rejected the notion that Cuba is experiencing a collapse or has become a failed state, during a special appearance broadcast on Thursday, February 5, by national television and shared on the social media of the Presidency.
In his words, the also First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) attempted to respond—without mentioning him directly—to the recent statements by Donald Trump, who labeled the island as a "failed state" and "a failed nation".
"I believe that the theory of collapse and the insistence on collapse is closely related to the theory of the failed state and to a whole set of constructs with which the U.S. government has tried to characterize the Cuban situation," said Díaz-Canel, attributing that narrative to an "imperial philosophy."
According to the leader appointed by General Raúl Castro, the alleged collapse is not real but ideological, and it is a response to a political and media offensive by the U.S. government.
"The collapse is in the mindset, it is in the imperial philosophy, but it is not in the mindset of the Cubans," he stated.
Díaz-Canel argued that Cuba withstands "the utmost pressures from the world's leading power," referring to the embargo and sanctions. He even quoted a phrase from Trump—who stated that the United States had applied "all possible pressures" against Havana—as evidence that the island continues to function despite attempts to suffocate it.
They then recognize that there is no failed state, but rather a state that has had to face immense pressure with considerable resistance,” affirmed the leader, who once again invoked his concept of creative resistance as a national response to the crisis.
The rhetoric of "resistance" in the face of a reality of operational collapse
Díaz-Canel's words sought to shift the focus from the internal structural crisis to external hostility, revisiting the classic narrative of the blockade as the cause of all shortcomings.
However, the distance between discourse and everyday reality has never been so evident.
On the island, blackouts exceed 18 hours daily in several provinces; public transportation operates intermittently; inflation is eroding wages; hospitals lack medications, and the migratory exodus has surpassed 600,000 Cubans since 2022, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (Other sources mention a dramatic exodus from the island of over a million people).
In this context, discussing "creative resistance" seems, to many Cubans, a way to deny the structural exhaustion of a model that no longer provides basic goods or expectations for improvement.
A state with control, but without functional capacity
Díaz-Canel insisted that Cuba is not a failed state because it maintains order and political control. However, as analysts point out, control does not equate to functionality.
A state can maintain its coercive authority —police, courts, armed forces— while at the same time failing to provide material security and public services.
That is the point that Trump and other international observers emphasize when using the label of failed state. It is not about the absence of government, but rather about a loss of operational capacity, a condition that accurately describes the situation in Cuba today.
While the ruler speaks of "economic suffocation," the state structure is facing an energy, fiscal, and administrative collapse that cannot be solely attributed to the sanctions.
The military-business conglomerate GAESA controls most of the foreign currency economy with complete opacity; agricultural and manufacturing production is at historic lows, and public services operate in a state of permanent emergency.
Between discourse and evidence
In his appearance, Díaz-Canel called for a "conviction of victory" and a collective effort to overcome difficulties. However, his words come at a time of increasing social distrust and a delegitimization of the one-party state.
The contrast between triumphalist rhetoric and everyday experience fuels a perception of fatigue that neither censorship nor propaganda can suppress.
The reactions on social media were immediate: many users responded to the official message with irony or outrage, recalling the blackouts, food shortages, and the massive exodus of young people.
"If this is not collapse, what do you call living without electricity, without transportation, and without a future?" wrote a user on X.
Between resistance and exhaustion
The regime's new defense reinforces a narrative centered on heroic resistance against the external enemy, but it avoids addressing the internal functional failures.
In reality, Cuba has not collapsed institutionally, but it is experiencing a process of increasing paralysis, where political control replaces effective governance.
Denying that evidence does not change reality. The island is not —as the learned Díaz-Canel claims— a victim of "imperial philosophy," but rather of its own systemic inertia: a state that clings to totalitarian power while failing to function for its society.
Filed under: