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The jurist and former university professor René Fidel González García published this Sunday, Mother's Day, an emotional and powerful message on Facebook from Santiago de Cuba in which he demanded the restoration of rights and freedoms so that Cuban mothers can stop dying in misery and loneliness.
Written in the form of a poetic litany, the text alternates the names of anonymous women —Zoila, Bertha, Esther, María, Neris— with direct political demands, and concludes with an image that encapsulates the entire denunciation: that of a Cuban mother whose tear and silence, González García says, "is called Cuba."
"We must reclaim our rights and freedoms, our political fullness, so that our mothers never again die in loneliness and sorrow, crying out for their imprisoned, absent, and persecuted children," wrote the jurist.
The message directly targets those responsible: "We must put an end to the rogues who have turned their disdain for simple happiness, the offense to their dignity, and the immersion of their lives in pettiness and contempt into the consequence of every decision they claim is public or don't even dare to confess."
He also denounced the material situation: “We need to earn back our respect so that our mothers do not die of hunger, without medicine, with their nails stained by coal soot and their souls wounded by lies.”
The portrait drawn by González García depicts a documented reality. 89% of the Cuban population lives in extreme poverty according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, and 79% of those over 70 years old cannot have three meals a day. The average monthly salary amounts to about 13 dollars at the informal exchange rate.
A recent report from the Food Monitor Program and Cuido60 revealed that one in three Cubans goes to bed hungry at least once a month, and that 80.2% of older adults face difficulties accessing medication.
The complaint about mothers who pass away without saying goodbye to their imprisoned children includes specific names. Zoila Esther Chávez Pérez, 84 years old, mother of political prisoner José Gabriel Barrenechea, died in May 2025 without her son by her side. In August 2025, the regime prevented Panter Rodríguez Baró from attending the funeral of his mother, Esther Baró Carrillo, who passed away at the age of 70.
That suffering extends to thousands of families. Cuba reports 1,250 political prisoners according to Prisoners Defenders as of the end of March 2026, a historic record. Other independent organizations place this figure in the range of over 750 incarcerated individuals. A study revealed that 40% of the relatives of 11J prisoners suffer from depression.
González García, Doctor of Law and former tenured professor at the University of Oriente, was dismissed in November 2016 for publishing critical articles in independent media. Last April, he compared the crisis to the Batista dictatorship, and on May 1, he denounced the official parade, stating: "It's not about the people who march, but about the people who cannot express themselves."
The Mother’s Day post concludes with an image that encapsulates everything: “Today, tomorrow, or later, when you see her sunk in the misery to which she has been condemned, fragile, walking through our streets, sitting on the sidewalks by the banks and ATMs, in the guardhouses and pharmacies, in the shade of an old tree, with a hoe still in her hands... do not think that each of her tears, that her silence, is anonymous. It has a name: Cuba.”
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