The Spanish actor Pepe Viyuela publicly expressed his support for the Cuban regime in a video released by the portal Cubainformación on February 19, 2026, as part of a campaign titled “Spanish Culture with Cuba, Against the Suffocation of Trump.”
In his remarks, Viyuela stated: “I want to clearly express my support for the Cubans, a people who are being unjustly crushed by this brutal, murderous, and criminal blockade by the United States.” The actor argued that “Cuba, throughout its history and in recent decades, has been a clear advocate for universal healthcare, health rights, and human rights, obviously.”
He also stated that if the Cuban healthcare system is "failing," it is "precisely because of the blockade, due to a lack of means, due to a lack of resources, not because the staff there has not been sufficiently trained, but because the arrival of supplies and everything that could allow the healthcare system to function has been prohibited."
In the same message, he added: “What I would demand now, what I would try to demand from this humble position as a citizen, is that this blockade ends, that the Cuban people are not punished for clearly spurious multinational interests, and that this right to health, which they have known how to defend for all these decades, is respected above all.”
The piece is part of a series of statements by figures from Spanish culture published by Cubainformación under the tag “Solidarity with Cuba.” The same material also features actors Emilio Gutiérrez Caba and Carlos Olalla; actresses Amparo Climent and Teresa Del Olmo; and writer Carmen Barrios.
Emilio Gutiérrez Caba described the President of the United States as "that pimp, that scoundrel, that bandit who is in the White House, that piece of animal who is currently attacking all of humanity." Carlos Olalla referred to Donald Trump as "this murderous tyrant who supports genocides, that is Donald Trump." Amparo Climent spoke about "that animal who is in the White House," while Teresa Del Olmo mentioned "a reckless and miserable president living in the White House of the United States." Carmen Barrios, for her part, stated that she is "horrified by what the United States is doing, by this new blockade."
The video featuring Viyuela's intervention was shared on the social network X by the account @_TereFelipe_, which wrote: “While Cuban artists in Miami call for invasions and blockades against their own people… There are Spanish artists who stand in solidarity with the Cuban people's cause… What a situation, huh??? Thank you, Pepe Viyuela, for this!”. The post had accumulated over 172,000 views by February 20, 2026.
Presenting Cuba as a "clear exponent" in the defense of human rights contrasts sharply with the reality documented for years by independent organizations, which have reported arbitrary detentions, political prisoners, restrictions on freedom of expression, and persecution of activists and opponents. In this context, defining the Cuban system as a model in terms of human rights is, at the very least, profoundly controversial.
In the healthcare sector, the official discourse has historically used public health as one of its main political banners. However, the population has been facing chronic shortages of medications, lack of basic supplies, hospital deterioration, and shortages that are part of a broader structural crisis for years.
Reducing the current deterioration solely to the U.S. embargo overlooks the discussion about internal management, the economic model, and the accountability of the Cuban authorities for the situation the country is facing, an element that is absent in the messages spread within this support campaign.
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