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The Central Bank of Cuba has just announced its new 2,000 and 5,000 peso bills, and Cubans responded in the best way they know how during times of crisis: by laughing at the regime.
The official bills, which started circulating this Wednesday in Havana, feature the portraits of Celia Sánchez Manduley and Mariana Grajales Cuello. However, a parallel gallery, irreverent and devastatingly funny, with alternative candidates to fill those spaces is already circulating on social media.
The first on the list is Yusuam Palacios Ortega, the young deputy and regime propagandist known for his passionate revolutionary speeches.
In the parody bills of the user Tony Ex-Flaco, he is identified as "Yusuam el Sexi," with a value of just half a peso.
"I believe that Yosuan deserves it," expressed comedian Andy Vázquez on Facebook, for whom Yusuam is the "Joyful Youth."
Another favorite in the parodic proposals is Silvio Rodríguez, the troubadour who called for an AKM to defend the regime. The internet user Woody Alguacil Cubano was direct: "NATIONAL BOND of 10,000 pesos with Silvio's face for all national vanguards."
And the profile of Facebook Edmundo Dantés Junior, with the same conviction, declared about his preferred candidate, the Minister of Domestic Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez: "If they don’t do this, I want nothing."
Figures in international politics such as Donald Trump and Marco Rubio also appear smiling on the new banknotes.
And to top it off, the controversial Cuban influencer La Cintumbare, a "patriot" who decorates the 2,000 peso bill.
The humor, however, does not mask the bitter reality behind the new currency circulating in Cuba.
The 5,000 peso bill is worth less than ten dollars, a figure that illustrates the collapse of purchasing power on the Island. The Cubans themselves captured this with irony on social media: My salary on a bill.
The economic context is devastating: the Cuban economy contracted by 5% in 2025, accumulating a decline of over 15% since 2020. In this scenario, the new high-denomination bills are less a sign of prosperity than a further symptom of the rampant inflation that undermines the daily lives of Cubans.
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