Israel Rojas, leader of the duo Buena Fe, stated this Thursday that Cuban official media do not feature his most recent music, and at times even overlook it "completely for being suspicious," in a post where he announced that he is working on the music video for the song El perfume del traidor, part of his new album titled Trineo.
The singer added an irony that did not go unnoticed. "A certain 'historian' has already paid attention to this material without ever having gone out. I find it interesting how those who oppose me are more aware of my creations," he wrote, pointing to the surveillance of the ideological apparatus over his artistic production.
In the comments, a follower reported that his music was playing on Cubavisión at 3:25 in the morning. Rojas responded sarcastically: "This is the Carnal album from 2019. They play it in the early morning to fill programming. At that hour, the audience level must be 0.1% of the population. But I can't complain. They play a lot of it at that hour, and it's from a project that’s already 7 years old. Thanks for the audience report."
The reaction from her followers was overwhelming. Mary Val wrote: "We are waiting for the brave ones to want to air Trineo on television and radio. But no, we still can’t see the pinky toe..."
Another user joked that the official media would have to "look through a telescope" to find anything about the new work, alluding to Catalejo (2008), one of the group's most controversial songs.
The audiovisual piece "El perfume del traidor" was directed by the photographer and filmmaker Claudio Peláez Sordo and filmed in a cemetery, featuring a gravestone that bears the name of Rojas himself, an image that, in light of his denunciation, takes on a symbolic weight that is hard to overlook.
While the new album Trineo remains absent from Cuban television and radio, Rojas concluded her release with a phrase that encapsulates the contradiction she lives. "These are truly crazy times," she noted.
The complaint is paradoxical given Rojas's history as one of the artists most closely associated with the regime. In February, he publicly supported the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and defended state secrecy, speaking of "policrisis."
That same month, he sparked controversy by stating that he would not donate his blood "for a venerable elder, nor for his son or grandson, nor for his family," touching on a taboo regarding the Castro dynasty, which forced him to publicly retract.
In April, Buena Fe performed at the Piña Colada Festival in Morón, an Avilan city that had recently been the scene of violent protests over power outages, and Rojas posted videos praising solar panels as "resilience", echoing the official narrative while failing to mention the repression.
Also, he admitted that blackouts affect his creative work. "Producing music with EcoFlow is an odyssey," he said.
In October 2025, Rojas acknowledged that protesting against the crisis was "almost an obligation", in a turn that marked the beginning of his public frictions with the cultural apparatus.
It is not the first time he has reported such pressures. In January 2023, he had already warned the official newspaper Girón about a "well-coordinated and fostered campaign to discredit us" and prevent his music from being heard.
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