A Cuban mother in Santiago de Cuba erupted against Miguel Díaz-Canel following his most recent televised speech, in which the leader called for "resistance" from the people and stated that each municipality must "eat what it produces," amid the worst energy and food crisis the Island has faced in decades.
The video, shared on Facebook by independent communicator Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, shows a woman denouncing the extreme poverty in which many Cuban families live and questioning the regime's cynicism.
"Do you think that jerk could be going through the crisis that this mother is experiencing? I don't believe it," she said, visibly upset.
In the material, the woman shows how to cook at home using logs as fuel, a scene that evokes the hardest years of the Special Period. “Look at the resilience that this makeshift firewood is demanding of us. No words,” she repeats while focusing on the improvised firewood.
The mother also denounces the poor quality of the food distributed by the state, claiming that after a long wait she barely received "a pound of muddy rice" and peas so hard that she needs "two logs thicker than a post" to be able to soften them.
The testimony arises at a moment when Díaz-Canel has publicly acknowledged the worsening of the energy crisis, even admitting that Cuba has returned to conditions similar to the Special Period. In his appearance, the leader stated that since December 2025, oil from Venezuela has not been arriving and announced "restrictive" measures, asking the population for more sacrifices and savings.
“I am not an idealist. I know we are going to face difficult times… but we will overcome it together with creative resilience,” the leader stated.
However, for many Cubans like this mother from Santiago, those words sound like mockery.
In her complaint, the woman also addressed U.S. President Donald Trump, stating that international measures do not impact the power elite, but rather the people.
"Everything you are doing, Donald Trump, you are not hurting the president. The president has food... it’s us you are ruining our lives," he stated.
The video adds to a growing wave of public outrage on social media, where thousands of Cubans have reacted with disapproval to the official call to “resist,” while in homes, cooking is done with firewood, medicines are lacking, and the country is sinking into endless blackouts.
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