"Applauding like hyenas": Arnaldo Rodríguez strikes back at critics of Annie Garcés

The Cuban musician and deputy Arnaldo Rodríguez, leader of the group Talismán and a defender of the regime in all contexts, published a passionate defense of the singer Annie Garcés, accusing her detractors of manipulating the audio of her recordings to make her look bad and labeling those who spread such content as people who applaud like hyenas of mediocrity and inconsequence.

In his post, Rodríguez directly points out those he criticizes: "The haters know it. That's why they modify the audio of their recordings and live reels to make it sound off-key, or to distort their voice."

The musician did not stop there and went further in his condemnation: "One has to be very despicable to try to discredit and diminish a person’s accomplishments through deceit and falsehood," Rodríguez specified, who, like Garcés, forgets that both defend a regime that keeps teenagers in prison.

Rodríguez described Garcés as "a professional and cultured musician" with "extraordinary talent" and asserted that, despite the ridicule, the singer will continue to receive recognition: "Not out of pity or consolation. But because her greatness, her talent, and her dedication merit it. Cuba loves you, my favorite 'nurse'."

The post includes a photo of both artists together, in which Annie Garcés is wearing a white nurse's uniform. Rodríguez himself clarified in a postscript that the image is from a music video where she plays that character.

Annie Garcés rose to fame —and controversy— in March 2021 when she participated in the song Homeland or Death for Life, composed by Raúl Torres as a official response from the regime to Homeland and Life, the anthem of the Cuban opposition movement.

In that piece, Garcés sings the phrase "the Revolution has more than 62 thousand millennia left," which went viral and made it a target for constant memes and jokes on social media, earning it the nickname "the one with the 62 thousand millennia".

Since then, the regime has actively promoted her: she was for the municipality of Habana del Este in February 2023, she undertook a tour in Spain in September of that year invited by organizations aligned with the Cuban government, and in April 2025 received the Machete de Oro, an official award for cultural workers.

Arnaldo Rodríguez is, for his part, one of the most active artists in publicly defending the regime on social media.

In March 2026, he referred to the protesters in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, as "antisocial," "rabble," and "vandals," and in November 2025 he attacked the independent media elToque, calling its supporters "cipayos" and "know-it-alls."

Garcés' defense follows the usual pattern of his public interventions, where he typically addresses criticisms against figures linked to the government, while dissenting voices and independent media face his harshest attacks.