Two street surveys recorded in Cienfuegos by the Cuban content creator Flores del Sol vividly illustrate what statistics already confirm: young Cubans want to leave the country, and if they succeed abroad, they would not return to live in the island.
In the first of the videos, a young woman named Lady responds without hesitation when asked if she would leave Cuba if she could: If I had the opportunity, yes, of course.
In response to the second question—whether he would return with money earned abroad—his answer is equally straightforward: "I would stay, I would give to my family, and if I ever returned, it would be to see them as a family because I miss them a lot, but with the same turnaround back. Because I wouldn’t stay here in Cuba."
The second video was recorded at the corner of Prado and Santa Clara, where a young fruit and vegetable vendor responds with the same determination.
"I wouldn't leave quietly because I have family here too, but yes, yes," he says when asked if he would leave the country.
When asked if he would return if he struck it rich abroad, his response is clear: "doing more and more and more and fighting for the family to be well here."
Both testimonials are not isolated cases. A survey conducted in September 2025 revealed that 93% of the Cubans surveyed stated they would leave the country "tomorrow" if they could, while only 5% said they would not.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) documented that 78% of residents in Cuba want to emigrate or know someone with that intention, and that 89% of the population lives in conditions of extreme poverty. Among young people aged 18 to 30, 97.61% disapprove of the government's performance.
The data on the exodus supports this sentiment: Cuba has lost more than one million inhabitants since 2021, with a population that fell from 11.3 million to between 8.6 and 8.8 million. Just in 2025, over 250,000 Cubans emigrated according to official figures, although independent studies raise that number to over 545,000 Cubans emigrated according to independent studies.
Cienfuegos, where the videos were filmed, is facing a particularly critical situation. In February of this year, the provincial government implemented emergency measures that included the postponement of non-urgent surgeries, the suspension of intermunicipal travel and reduced hours for businesses and banks.
This outlook stands in stark contrast to the official discourse.
In April 2024, Díaz-Canel declared at the XII Congress of the Union of Young Communists that the youth who remain in Cuba are "the true support of the nation." In December of that same year, a young deputy stated before Parliament that Cuban youth want to stay on the Island to build socialism.
The popular response on social media was immediate and overwhelming. "Those who stay are because they haven't been able to leave", wrote one user. "Could it be that those who are here are because they don't have the money to leave?", pointed out another. "I stayed because I don't have cash", summarized a third.
The most supported comment was from Evelyn Mata, who directly asked the leader: "To conduct a survey in the basic secondary and pre-university schools so that he can see that 99.9% want to leave this country; that is the reality of Cuba, very sad."
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