Yiosniel Roque Pérez, known on TikTok as "El Terrible," is the young Cuban who burst into a live session on that platform where Sandro Castro, grandson of the dictator Fidel Castro, was present, and directly confronted him with reproaches and insults that resonated throughout the Cuban community abroad.
The content creator Elieser "El Bayardo" published an interview on Instagram on Sunday with Roque Pérez, where the main subject described how everything happened.
"That was my wife, who was there; we were lying in bed and she saw: Look who is online," Roque Pérez recounted about the moment he found out that Sandro Castro was live.
According to what he explained, he first tried to join the live of a girl who was accompanying Sandro Castro to "make him look bad," but he was not accepted. It was another user who finally brought him into the live, and that is when the direct confrontation occurred.
Roque Pérez did not remain silent. He told Sandro Castro to his face what many Cubans think of him.
"Brother, he is selling what he is not. He is just like those Castros. He is selling a fallacy. That guy to me is a mocker who has mocked the Cuban people with cars, with beers, with things, with food," he stated in the interview.
The young man went further and pointed directly to the contradiction that angers Cubans the most: "He has played with the people's scarcity. He has riches while others are dying of hunger, having resources, having happiness, because in reality, that guy lives like a king."
When describing what he felt at that moment, Roque Pérez said he felt liberated, a word that many Cubans understand well.
"I let go of something that I had inside. Like many must have it that way, crazy, to tell someone that, to say it to their face. To say all those things and nothing, that is a happiness that is unparalleled," he affirmed.
El Bayardo, in his presentation, summarized the general sentiment: "What you did, many Cubans would like to do" and "you had the opportunity that many Cubans did not have."
Roque Pérez clarified that he is neither an activist nor someone deeply involved in politics, but he made it clear that his sentiment is genuine: "I'm not someone who is really inside all that, but of course, I carry it here, in my blood, brother. And what we want to see is a free people."
The episode occurs during a time of heightened media exposure for Sandro Castro. On March 31, he gave an interview to CNN where he revealed that he had been summoned for questioning by Cuban State Security due to his satirical videos, although he was released with a warning.
In the interview itself, he criticized Díaz-Canel and described himself as "revolutionary yes, communist no," stating that most Cubans want capitalism, not communism.
Sandro Castro is the owner of the EFE bar in Vedado and has showcased a lifestyle of luxury on social media—high-end cars, yacht trips, private parties—in stark contrast to the severe crisis faced by the Cuban people, which has drawn recurrent criticism since 2021.
This Monday, Sandro Castro released a new video titled "The Circus is Fresh", referring to the scarcity of fuel, water, and the economic stagnation in Cuba. This once again sparked division among those who view him as a critical voice from within the island and those, like Roque Pérez, who believe that his figure is nothing more than another expression of the unchecked privilege of the Castro regime.
Filed under: