The Cuban singer Haydée Milanés published a powerful video on her Instagram stories this Saturday, addressed directly to the global left, demanding that they stop supporting the Cuban dictatorship and recognize the difference between the regime and the people suffering under its power.
This video is for the left of the world, Milanés begins. "We Cubans have not asked you for any help to support the dictatorship. At what point have we asked you to support the Cuban dictatorship?"
The message arrives just three weeks after the Nuestra América flotilla arrived in Havana —organized by at least 23 Marxist and socialist organizations from 33 countries— between March 18 and March 24 with over twenty tons of humanitarian aid valued at $433,000.
Among the most controversial participants was Pablo Iglesias, former leader of Podemos, who met with Díaz-Canel at the Palace of Conventions, conducted a revolutionary free tour, stayed at the five-star Gran Hotel Bristol in Old Havana, and posted on X: "How good the revolution feels."
Milanés dismantles that type of gesture with precision: "The help they are giving to the dictatorship is for them to hold on to power, while they continue to oppress the Cuban people, killing them with hunger, need, and repression."
The singer draws a clear line between the regime and the population: "The Cuban people are very separate from the Cuban dictatorship and are suffering at the hands of the Cuban dictatorship."
And describes the humanitarian situation on the island bluntly: "Children imprisoned, children without food, elderly people on the streets rummaging through trash for something to eat. And all because of that government."
Milanés also dismantles the argument of the embargo, which the international left often uses to justify its support for the regime: "That's a big lie. The big lie is that, and it has been the main justification of the Cuban dictatorship for all its ineffectiveness."
His criticism is directed squarely at those who, from an ideological standpoint, support the government of Havana: "In the name of an ideology, what are you defending: a dictatorship in power for 67 years that has devastated an entire population? I find it cruel and selfish towards the Cuban people."
The video generated a swift response on social media. The journalist Mag Jorge Castro shared it on Instagram with the comment: Thank you for not staying silent.
It is not the first time that Milanés has raised her voice. In February 2026, she denounced the detention of young members of the El4tico collective in Holguín, calling it "yet another proof of horror." In 2025, she premiered the song Duele with El B, dedicated to over sixty years of dictatorship, and in June of that same year, she joined the support for the university strike in Cuba.
The singer, who resides in exile, concluded her message with a direct demand to the global left and an unequivocal slogan: "Don't be misled by a dictatorship that isn't helping the people; it's destroying them. Down with the dictatorship".
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