The Cuban musician Manolín, El Médico de la Salsa, stated this Tuesday in an interview with CiberCuba that the United States has a direct historical responsibility for what has happened in Cuba over the past seven decades, as the regime has used Washington as a permanent justification for all its repression and misery.
"There is a government and there is a dictatorship that is destroying the people of Cuba in the name of the United States," the singer declared. "It claims it's because of the United States. That the misery is due to the United States, that there is no democracy in Cuba because of the United States, that they cannot allow us freedom of expression because of the United States."
For Manolín, this logic has psychologically paralyzed the Cuban people for decades. "If the United States does nothing from 90 miles away, what are we going to do? We are unarmed," he stated, explaining that geographical proximity, far from being an advantage, has acted as a brake: "If we had been farther from the United States, the dictatorship would already be gone. But being so close doesn't help us; it harms us."
The singer was direct in pointing out Washington's implicit complicity: "The United States, silence implies consent. If you allow that, you are complicit in the dictatorship."
Manolín declared himself a "staunch critic" of President Donald Trump, but acknowledged a change in his assessment of the current administration. "One day I discovered, or realized, that for the first time a U.S. president had truly committed to the freedom of Cuba," he stated, also highlighting the role of Marco Rubio, of Cuban descent, as Secretary of State.
From that position, the singer presented a binary dilemma to Washington: "Either lift the blockade to remove the justification, or take down the dictatorship. And if it has taken you this long, then just take it down directly now."
The United States has the responsibility to help us escape the dictatorship. They have the responsibility. Seriously, seriously, he insisted.
This stance represents a radical evolution in the artist's thinking. Historically critical of the Cuban government, Manolín had always left a door open to the possibility of reforming the regime in his public statements. After living five years in Cuba after 20 years of exile, he claims to have lost all hope for internal change and now openly supports external pressure.
The singer definitively left the island in September 2024 and settled in Spain, from where he has intensified his criticism of the regime. In April 2026, he compared the dictatorship to a kidnapping and urged the Cuban people: “Do not save your executioner, it is time for freedom.”
The international context reinforces Manolín's argument: in January 2026, Trump signed an executive order declaring Cuba a "national emergency and unusual threat" and imposing tariffs on countries that export oil to the island. That same month, the UN described the situation in Cuba as a humanitarian emergency, reporting 96,000 postponed surgeries and one million people without regular access to drinking water.
"It has to end now. It’s a moral issue; it's a problem that’s already over. It can’t go on," concluded Manolín.
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