Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), sparked controversy once again after posting a message on his Facebook profile in which, in an ironic tone, he expressed his "thanks" to the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for the current pressure situation on the island.
In the post he wrote: “And suddenly, there was no need to make more posters, shirts, or programs to explain it: All those who said the blockade doesn’t exist, or that it is only against ‘the regime’, fell silent.” In the image accompanying the text, he added: “It had been a long time since there was so much discussion on the streets of Cuba about the harm that the #USA blockade causes to Cubans. Thank you, Marco Rubio!”
Far from reinforcing its narrative, the publication unleashed a wave of direct criticism on its own wall. Many users interpreted its words as an implicit admission that the official discourse needed a new fact to uphold the thesis of the "blockade."
Comments such as: "67 years saying that the blockade was to blame, and now in just one week, they are partially blocked and desperate, destroyed," "Now there truly is a blockade. So many years lying to the world about the blockade, and now it has finally arrived. They’re experiencing the blockade," and "It's not the same to call it a blockade as it is to see it come" were read on their profile.
Others were even more emphatic: “In Cuba, there is no blockade, there is a dictatorship,” “The only blockade is from the communist party to the Cuban people,” and “The true suffocation is felt from the government when it doesn’t even allow you to think.”
There were also reproaches regarding the contrast between the leadership and the citizens: “I don’t see a blockade in the hotels or in the lifestyle of the dictators” and “The blockade is what you impose by prohibiting Cubans from enjoying the natural resources to feed themselves.”
Several comments brought up once again the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996. One of the messages read: “Here, every day, we talk about the four members of the unarmed civil aircraft from Brothers to the Rescue, whose only purpose was to rescue Cubans fleeing the Cuban regime at sea, and you shot them down... so who is more to blame?”
The case has regained relevance following efforts in the United States to evaluate potential charges against Raúl Castro for the shootdown on February 24, 1996, which resulted in the deaths of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre. The discussion was reignited after the arrest in 2025 of former Cuban pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo for immigration fraud and new public statements from survivors who continue to demand accountability. Reports from the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded that the aircrafts were shot down outside Cuban airspace, a key element in the legal debate. Days before, Hernández had reacted to that initiative by mocking the attempt to prosecute Raúl Castro.
In the post on Facebook from CiberCuba Noticias where their message was shared, the responses maintained a critical tone and delved into the internal responsibility of the regime.
A user wrote: “I will believe in the leaders when they live alongside the people, when they live like the Uruguayan president Pepe Mujica, who was humble and did not live surrounded by luxury.” Another commented: “Our harsh reality began 67 years ago; that is the real blockade.”
It also read: "Long before Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, you had already blocked the country," "Your ideology before the misery and despair of the people," and "As always justifying the unjustifiable."
In other messages, the disconnection between power and citizenship was questioned directly: "It’s clear that you lack nothing, you are not the people" and "You all destroyed Cuba, no one else."
The controversy adds to other recent episodes in which Hernández has been at the center of criticism. At the end of January, he was involved in a digital offensive following a satirical post that triggered a chain of attacks on social media, an episode that was reflected when he stood guard with a series of messages against the media and its readers. Days later, he once again quoted Fidel Castro on his social media amidst political tensions, attempting to revive slogans from the past as the context changed, as happened when he resurrected Fidelist rhetoric during a crisis. Additionally, he generated strong reactions after attacking Cuban-American politicians and blaming the exile for the economic situation, which provoked a wave of citizen responses when his posts were widely questioned by users online.
Amid the intensification of the policy towards Havana under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hernández’s attempt to reinforce the narrative of the "blockade" had the opposite effect: it created a space where dozens of citizens directly blamed the internal power structure for the economic collapse, the blackouts, chronic shortages, and the lack of freedoms accumulated over more than six decades. Rather than consolidating the official discourse, its publication further exposed the profound weariness of a rhetoric that resonates less and less among those enduring the crisis on the island.
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