The jurist and former university professor René Fidel González García published a powerful message on Facebook this Sunday from Santiago de Cuba, in which he claims that today there are more reasons than in 1953 for a new generation of Cubans to rise up "against this hellish plague of undesirable rulers and insatiable tyrants that have plunged Cuba into misery."
The phrase is not yours: it belongs to the Hymn of July 26, composed by Agustín Díaz Cartaya in 1953 as an expression of popular indignation against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. González García now revives it and applies it, with a significant historical irony, to the regime that has used that same hymn as its own symbol for decades.
The trigger for the post is a postage stamp commemorating the centenary of the birth of José Martí, distributed in Cuba in 1953. González García recounts that a couple of those stamps came into his possession years ago, and that he gave one of them to his mother, who treasured it "with that quiet devotion so characteristic of Martí followers." After her passing, his father returned it to him "so that another generation could preserve it."
From that family memory, the jurist outlines a historical arc of 73 years: "Looking back, when reading or listening to the speeches, articles, and arguments of that time, the ideals and aspirations for democracy, justice, and prosperity that many held had to be our destiny. It is impossible not to calmly acknowledge that today in Cuba, there are even more causes and reasons—political, economic, and social—than there were at that moment."
In his view, it is essential for another generation to carry “the teachings of the Master in their hearts” —as Fidel Castro stated in his speech History Will Absolve Me— and to uphold them before everyone and in the face of everything, in a full exercise of integrity.
The post is published on the same day that Miguel Díaz-Canel presided over the central events for the 65th anniversary of Playa Girón in the Ciénaga de Zapata and inaugurated the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland", a mobilization organized by the Communist Party of Cuba to support the official statement "Girón is today and always." Three days earlier, on April 16, Díaz-Canel had presided over an event in Vedado, Havana, where he blamed the U.S. embargo for all the country's ills and called on Cubans to be ready to fight.
This propaganda display painfully contrasts with the reality faced by the population: power outages of up to more than 20 hours daily, 89% of Cubans living in extreme poverty, critical shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, and a projected GDP contraction of 7.2% for 2026, which has already accumulated a 23% decline since 2019.
The energy crisis worsened following the fall of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, which interrupted the shipment of Venezuelan crude to the Island and the pressures from the U.S. government that also cut off supply from Mexico.
González García is not an anonymous critic. He is a Doctor of Legal Sciences, an essayist, and was a Full Professor at the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba until he was dismissed and professionally banned on November 11, 2016 for publishing critical articles in media outlets such as La Joven Cuba, Rebelión, and Cuba Posible.
Since then, he has been the target of systematic harassment by State Security. In October of 2022, he filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court against Miguel Díaz-Canel and Attorney General Yamila Peña Ojeda for alleged violations of his constitutional rights. In June 2023, he warned that he would initiate a hunger strike if he were prosecuted, and in July 2024, he reported threats of prosecution for alleged crimes of "enemy propaganda", "disrespecting the president", and "disobedience". Despite everything, this Sunday he shared his thoughts, emphasizing that he feels at peace.
The jurist concludes his post with a quote from José Martí from the 19th century, which serves as a warning about the authoritarian model of government, applicable both to Batista in 1953 and, implicitly, to the current regime: "A people is not established, General, like one commands a camp."
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