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The Cuban comedian Ulises Toirac joined the debate on multipartyism in Cuba this week with a joke that, as often happens with him, ended up revealing more truths than many political analyses: he announced on Facebook the founding of the "Orthodontist Bembocratic Party", with the slogan "Down with spy flights and the molar with slogans" and the campaign cry "Enjoy and let enjoy with the National Symphony."
The poster, designed with the aesthetic of a professional political campaign, includes a tooth logo and a platform of humorous proposals: "Chicken and Fish," "Good Vibes," and "Orderly Fun." The name of the party is a play on words with "bemba"—slang for mouth in Cuba—"democratic," and "orthodontics," suggesting that what Cuba needs is to "straighten out" the political discourse.
But behind the laughter, Toirac pointed to something structural: "Some do it to discredit, others to genuinely launch parties. The truth is that the groove in the hypothalamus is so deep that something that is everyday in any country has become almost seismic in ours."
The publication is an ironic response to the reaction generated after the exiled activist Amelia Calzadilla announced from Madrid the founding of the Cuban Orthodox Liberal Party, defined as a center-right liberal party. Three days later, the state-run program Con Filo responded with mockery on social media that, far from discrediting the initiative, amplified the debate.
Toirac pointed to both targets at once: he criticized the regime's disproportionate reaction to something as ordinary as founding a party, as well as the excessive seriousness with which some received their own joke. And this is not the first time that Toirac has used irony to highlight the contradictions of the Cuban system.
The debate in the comments quickly ensued, with some followers taking the post seriously while others adopted a solemn tone. Toirac responded emphatically: "It is... nice... to see that the education foreign to the Cuban character... the kind that imposes seriousness, intolerance, and 'this is not the historical moment' has deeply resonated with so many."
And he made it clear that he has no intention of becoming a politician: "I can assure you from the bottom of my heels that you will not see me— not directing—militating for a party. Not even for those led by friends or people I believe are doing a good job. None."
He described it as "pathetic" to take seriously a post "so ridiculous" and urged his followers to "learn to live in freedom of expression and democracy" and to "buy themselves a sense of humor (if nature didn't give them one)."
The essence of the joke is a constitutional anomaly: Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution of 2019 establishes the Communist Party as "the superior political force guiding society and the State," turning the mere announcement of an alternative party into an almost seismic event. Calzadilla, for her part, responded to the mockery from Con Filo with a phrase that captures the moment well: "The sarcastic reaction from Con Filo fills me with pride; it reflects how much pain it causes them to know that as a people we are ready to embrace country projects that do not come from the hands of the one who has deprived us of everything."
Toirac, who in February 2026 summed up his political stance with the phrase "Neither with the Indians nor with the cowboys... I stand with the Cubans," had already reacted to the announcement from PLOC with another irony: "What's really ridiculous is that 'the revolution has prepared it so well'," referring to the fact that it was the regime's harassment that shaped Calzadilla as an opponent.
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