Cuban content creator José Martínez published a 45-second reel on Facebook this Friday in which he recites a poem in décimas—the lyrical form of ten verses most deeply rooted in the popular culture of Cuba and Latin America—about the visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Havana; and the result is as sharp as the lines that compose it.
The poem begins with the energy of someone who has been waiting for news like this for years: "The CIA has arrived in Havana? / Something big is about to happen! / It's easy to guess. / They went to adjust the target!"
From the very first line, Martínez leaves no room for doubt about the tone: this is not a geopolitical analysis; it is a collection of décimas infused with hope and a touch of irony, the kind that Cuban repentistas and writers have used for centuries to speak truths to power without it quite knowing how to respond.
The creator continues with a veiled warning to those who chose not to see what was coming: "Then let them not say tomorrow / that they weren't warned. / All who were alerted / sinned by being dissuasive."
In other words: those who didn’t want to listen should not come now with a face of surprise. The poem then moves into an almost cinematic territory, with images that blend the language of rationality with that of popular poetry: “All the devices / have already been installed. / Everything that was scanned, / is now on a map.”
If someone in Havana thought that Ratcliffe's visit was just a diplomatic courtesy, Martinez has a different interpretation: "It has led you to the stage / of operational testing. / The crucial part is coming / where you put your own in."
And the finale, with the certainty of someone who knows that the last verse is the one that will be remembered: "Closure, protest, and flourish / in the final thrust."
The tenths did not fall on deaf ears. The video accumulated thousands of views and hundreds of likes, reflecting the mood of a Cuban citizenry that has been watching the island burn —both literally and figuratively— for months, and that sees Ratcliffe's visit as something more than just an intelligence meeting.
And the context in which this verse resonates couldn't be more explosive. The CIA landed in Havana last Wednesday and met with the Minister of the Interior Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, with Raúl Rodríguez Castro —“Raulito”, grandson and bodyguard of Raúl Castro and a colonel in MININT— and with the head of the Intelligence Directorate, Ramón Romero Curbelo.
What followed was equally unusual: the CIA published photographs of the meeting on its official account, something that an intelligence agency typically does not do even in its best days of transparency.
Ratcliffe delivered a message from Donald Trump making any dialogue conditional on "fundamental changes" in Cuba, and the CIA itself warned this Saturday that the "window" for those changes was closing.
Meanwhile, the island that Martinez describes in poetic terms is experiencing its worst electricity crisis in years: Cuba has broken records for blackouts with a deficit of 2,204 MW, blackouts of up to 22 hours daily in Havana and 24 hours in eastern provinces, and an Energy Minister who candidly acknowledged that Cuba "had no diesel or fuel oil" available.
In that cauldron, protests erupted in at least 12 municipalities in Havana with pot banging, barricades, and bonfires, under the slogan "Food and power!".
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,133 protests, complaints, and expressions of discontent just in April 2026, an increase of 29.5% compared to the same month the previous year.
It is in that context—blackouts, hunger, protests, and an unexpected visit from the CIA confirmed in an official statement from the Communist Party of Cuba—where the décimas of José Martínez, who is also a psychologist and entrepreneur, find their most devoted audience and deepest meaning.
As he himself summarizes in eight syllables that need no translation: "Closure, protest, and a flourish in the final thrust."
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