The Cuban actor and comedian Vladimir Escudero published a video this Wednesday on Instagram directly responding to actor and presenter Alejandro Cuervo, who had publicly questioned whether Cubans in Miami "wish for a war in Cuba" from the comfort of air conditioning.
Cuervo had stated: "How can they wish for a war in Cuba from an air-conditioned room in Miami?", adding that those who support a regime change "are putting hatred above their own family living on the island."
Escudero responded emphatically from the very first second: “The Cuban in Miami does not want a war. The Cuban in Miami wants the end of a tragedy.”
In the nearly three-minute video, the comedian redefined the very concept of war: "War is also seeing an elderly person sifting through garbage to eat. War is also witnessing a hospital without medicine. War is also a mother saying goodbye to her children at the airport, not knowing when they will embrace again. War is also living in fear of speaking."
One of the most quoted phrases by his followers in the comments was: «Some have learned to call peace the forced silence of a people».
Escudero pointed directly at Cuervo's contradiction, an artist who frequently travels to Miami and enjoys freedoms that he denies to everyday Cubans.
"You come, eat well, shop, breathe freedom, speak without fear, laugh. Recording videos, mocking those who think differently. But then you return to Cuba to tell the ordinary Cuban to endure, to be silent, not to complain, not to dream of being free. Damn, that is indeed cruel," Escudero criticized.
And it went further: “No one who truly experiences the freedoms of this country can then look at Cuba and demand eternal resignation. No one.”
Escudero also dismantled the argument that asking for freedom amounts to hating Cuba: "Asking for freedom is not hating Cuba. It is precisely because they love Cuba." He concluded with a statement that summarizes the debate: "The problem is not that there are angry Cubans. The problem is that there are still people trying to turn resignation into virtue".
Alejandro Cuervo arrived in Miami for the first time in June 2025 and has since been facing a crisis of image in the Cuban diaspora. On that occasion, he stated that «it is very difficult, but it is possible to thrive in Cuba» and that no one tells him what he has to say, a stance that the exile community interpreted as complicity with the regime.
Cuervo returned to Cuba in July 2025 describing himself as feeling "at home," and in October of that year he returned to Miami to participate in the reality show 'El Rancho de Destino,' which intensified the accusations of double standards.
It's not the first time Escudero has starred in a debate of this kind. In March 2026, he had already faced off against the reggaeton artist Yomil Hidalgo in a similar controversy regarding the protests in Cuba.
The video ended with a phrase that captures the stance of the Cuban exile community: "Free Cuba. Down with communism, Ale. And hopefully it will be soon. Hopefully it will be soon, damn it."
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