The Cuban influencer Anita Mateu, residing in Spain, has sparked a heated debate on social media after posting a new video on TikTok in which she criticizes those who blame the crisis in Cuba solely on the United States.
In the video available on her TikTok profile (@anita.mateu), the young woman questions why non-Cuban individuals express opinions about the island's situation without having experienced it. "How dare people from other nationalities who have no clue speak and opine as if they were experts on the Cuba–United States issue?" she asks.
The content creator rejects the notion that the country's situation is solely due to the "blockade" and asserts that there is trade between Cuba and the United States and other countries. "It's all the fault of the blockade, please! There are shipping agencies from the United States to Cuba, there are many American products in Cuba, all the time," she states.
In his remarks, he emphasizes that the main problem is internal: “the current situation in Cuba is not the fault of the U.S. blockade (...) the primary issue is the current government.”
Mateu also describes the Cuban economic system as highly controlled by the State and claims that it limits individual development. “The country of Cuba is completely nationalized by the state; everything belongs to the State,” he says, while advocating for the need for a competitive market.
As part of his testimony, he recounts personal experiences regarding the expropriation of family businesses following the arrival of the socialist system. “My grandfather had a butcher shop (...) when the revolution succeeded, they turned that butcher shop into a state-owned grocery store, they took it away, they expropriated it,” he shares.
Additionally, he criticizes the partial dollarization of the Cuban economy and the loss of value of the Cuban peso: "with Cuba's currency, you can't buy anything; now with the United States dollar, you can buy a lot of things."
In his message, he also questions the lack of political freedoms on the island: "It's a dictatorship, where we Cubans do not choose our president, we do not vote in elections, the same government has been in power for sixty years."
The video has generated a wide reaction on social media. Numerous users supported his statements and agreed in pointing to the Cuban government as the main responsible party for the crisis. "It had to be said, and it was said" and "only a Cuban understands what is happening there" were some of the supportive reactions.
Other comments questioned his analysis or insisted on attributing the deterioration of the island to the U.S. embargo, a recurring argument in the debate about Cuba. Some users pointed out that “the economic embargo worsens the situation on the island” or that “not everything is black and white.”
There were also criticisms focused on his approach, with users calling for a differentiation between political systems or to avoid generalizations, as well as questioning whether his personal experience could serve as a basis for interpreting the reality of the country.
The debate occurs in a context where the confrontation between those who primarily attribute the Cuban crisis to the U.S. embargo and those who hold the internal political system responsible remains common.
Recently, similar discussions have taken place on television in Spain, such as the confrontation between a Cuban journalist and the spokesperson for Podemos, Pablo Fernández, who attributed the crisis to the embargo, while she responded that “the sole responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Cuba is the dictatorship.”
Mateu had previously expressed opinions along these lines following a recent trip to the island, where he described the economic and social deterioration and questioned the narrative that attributes the crisis solely to external factors.
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