The writer Camilo Venegas Yero (Paradero de Camarones, July 16, 1967) argues that no Cuban truly studied for free and explains in an interview with CiberCuba how the regime turned education into a debt that citizens paid with decades of sacrifices and loss of freedoms.
"None of us studied for free in Cuba because, in one way or another, we were all paying for it through our parents receiving a very low salary for all the efforts they made. In other words, we all paid more than enough," said the writer, pointing out that this free education is fictitious as Cuban workers have never received fair compensation for their work.
The data supports this view. This Thursday, economist Elías Amor compared the average salary in Cuba in 2025, which is 6,930 pesos per month, with an inflation rate of 14% that erodes the entire salary and renders the remuneration "useless."
The model is also replicated abroad. In international missions, the regime withholds up to 85% of the salary paid to Cuban professionals sent overseas, a practice that reveals the extractive logic that has characterized the system since its inception.
Venegas made these statements in an interview granted to CiberCuba to discuss his latest novel, "Los mudos de la montaña," which will be presented this Friday, April 24, at the Librería Arenales in Madrid (7:00 PM).
The story is set in 1980s Cuba and describes two diametrically opposed ways of life: that of the luxurious life of officials connected to the power of the Communist Party, and that of humble mountain people. Within these two Cubas, there are three characters—Mario, Dania, and Emelina—whose lives intersect.
He is a young journalism student who travels to the Escambray to write about the achievements of the Revolution. Dania is the daughter of a 'pincho', living a comfortable life in Havana, and Emelina, a doctor exiled to the Escambray, is separated from her husband and son, as both emigrate to Miami while she remains confined in those mountains and must serve a punishment before leaving the country.
The writer is now immersed in another novel, also related to the Escambray, but focused on the life of one of the insurgents against communism, whom the regime's narrative has categorized as terrorists funded by the CIA.
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