Related videos:
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla stated this Sunday that "there is no justification for any aggression against Cuba," during his speech at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba held at the Convention Palace in Havana. The response from numerous Cubans on social media was immediate and forceful: hundreds of comments turned the Foreign Minister's argument on its head, labeling the regime itself as the true aggressor.
The publication of the speech on the Facebook page of Cubadebate garnered more than 241 comments, overwhelmingly critical of the government, where many users rejected the official narrative and demanded free elections, the release of political prisoners, and the end of 67 years of a single-party system.
One of the most widely shared comments summarized the prevailing sentiment: "There is no need for justifications; you are the ones to blame for clinging to power and enslaving the people."
Other users were just as direct: "It's not against Cuba. It's against the Cuban government," one wrote. "There is also no justification for you to be in power," another added.
A user wrote: "Stop with the drama, you know and you're not blind that Cubans in Cuba lack everything; they have no food, no electricity, no medications, and not even a glass of milk to give their children when they wake up, but none of you lack anything; you live like millionaires."
Another comment pointed directly at the chancellor's contradiction: "You know what’s happening, Bruto Parrilla, you have closed off all avenues for the people to defend themselves, protest, or express dissent, and now, as desperate Cubans, we turn to the neighbor to throw us a lifeline. You only know two responses to everything: it's the fault of the blockade and NO."
Rodríguez's speech took place amid the most intense escalation between Cuba and the United States in decades. The chancellor mocked President Donald Trump's threat to send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier 100 yards off the Cuban coast, asking, "What will we do with that massive piece of metal?" and suggesting it could become "a dance floor."
Rodríguez also described Washington's energy sanctions as "an act of war equivalent to a naval blockade" and warned that "Cuba would be a hornet's nest, Cuba would be a death trap" in response to any attack.
However, Cubans on social media reminded that the prolonged blackouts they suffer on the island are not a result of external aggression, but rather decades of failed management by the regime.
The context is one of maximum pressure: Trump recently announced new sanctions against foreign companies and banks that operate with Cuban entities in energy, defense, mining, and finance, continuing with the Executive Order 14380 of January 29, which declared Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat."
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 28 that "the Cuban regime has only two destinations: neither of them good", while Díaz-Canel responded to Trump stating that "no aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba."
Cubans on social media, however, made it clear that the accountability they demand is not to Washington, but to their own people: “Just leaving will solve the problem,” wrote one. “The justification is in the comments: they have none in favor,” stated another.
Filed under: