The representative of the Cuban regime at UNESCO, Dulce Buergo, delivered a speech last Friday at the 224th session of the Executive Council of the organization in Paris, which repeats, almost without variation, the usual script: Cuba as a victim of American imperialism, with not a single mention of the internal crisis, repression, or popular discontent shaking the island.
The Cuban Mission to UNESCO published the video on social media on Thursday, two days after the Executive Council session concluded, held from April 8 to 23 in the French capital.
Buergo stated that Cuba has been facing "the longest sustained act of economic aggression in contemporary history for over 60 years," denounced the inclusion of the island on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and criticized Trump's executive order which, according to her, "aims to impose a total blockade on our fuel supplies on the premise that economic deprivation and the resulting human suffering will force our people to give up their sovereignty and independence."
He concluded with a rhetorical challenge: "It will not happen. We will never renounce our sovereign right to build the country we want while also contributing to the construction of a better, more supportive, and peaceful world."
The speech completely overlooks the reality faced by the Cuban population. While Buergo spoke of "peace" and "multilateralism" in Paris, Cuba is experiencing its worst energy crisis in decades: power outages of up to 20 and 25 hours daily, an energy deficit of up to 2,040 MW, and at least three total collapses of the electrical system in March, including one lasting 30 hours on the 16th of that month.
The energy crisis worsened since January 2026, when Nicolás Maduro's capture halted Venezuelan shipments of between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels per day, and Mexico suspended its shipments under pressure from Washington. Trump signed Executive Order 14380 on January 29, declaring a national emergency and imposing tariffs on third countries that supply fuel to Cuba.
The popular discontent soon erupted. Cubalex documented 229 protests in March 2026, the highest number in a single month since the 11J of 2021, with loud pot-banging protests across all provinces. The regime responded with arrests—at least 14 detained since March 6—and a deployment of riot forces. Díaz-Canel described the demonstrations as "vandalism" and warned: "There will be no impunity."
Buergo's speech also does not mention that Cuba ended 2025 with a record of 1,192 political prisoners, nor that the island's population has decreased to about eight million after losing 24% in four years due to massive emigration.
What the regime does efficiently is accumulate positions in international organizations. On April 13 and 14, Cuba was elected to chair the Intergovernmental Network of National Commissions for Cooperation with UNESCO. Just two days earlier, on April 11, Cuba was elected to the ECOSOC NGO Committee of the UN for the 2027-2030 term, despite formal protests from the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France, which pointed out the contradiction of allowing a country that legally prohibits independent NGOs to oversee civil society's access to the UN.
The pattern is not new. In October 2025, Díaz-Canel compared Cuba to Gaza before the FAO. That same month, the annual UN vote against the embargo saw the lowest global support for Cuba in over a decade, with two Latin American countries abstaining or voting against it for the first time.
The regime's strategy is always the same: blame the embargo for a crisis that has a different origin and use multilateral forums to project a victim image while silencing internal repression. The Cuban people, who suffer from blackouts, hunger, and persecution, do not feature in any of these narratives.
Filed under: