The official host Humberto López stated this Wednesday on his program Hacemos Cuba that the country is experiencing "tough times." However, on a day marked by an armed confrontation in territorial waters that resulted in four deaths and seven injuries, the regime's spokesperson chose to focus his segment on a bureaucratic topic: control actions in the Ministry of Agriculture.
As the Ministry of the Interior reported that a boat registered in the state of Florida was intercepted by Border Guard Troops one nautical mile from the El Pino channel, near Cayo Falcones (Villa Clara), and that the exchange of gunfire resulted in fatalities, the most biased spokesperson on state television was keen to avoid focusing on one of the most serious incidents to occur in Cuban waters in recent years.
Instead of addressing an incident with potential political and diplomatic implications at a sensitive time for relations with the United States, Hacemos Cuba focused on discussing the results of an internal control assessment in Agriculture, a sector that has been mired in structural crisis and low productivity levels for decades.
The thematic choice proved disconnected from the realities capturing national and international attention, highlighting a media agenda that is distant from the country's most pressing concerns.
The regime is developing confusing communication strategies. It tries to convey that nothing is happening on the island, that they are continuing with their usual agendas in the government, but Cubans sense that significant changes are imminent.
Cuban television and state-run media are, in these "difficult times for Cuba," the least consulted source of information. This is because they are under the absolute control of the regime and are unable to address the issues of interest to their audience in the country.
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