More than 50,000 Cubans residing in the Canary Islands are closely monitoring the situation on the island and are calling for political change as the only way out of the crisis the country is facing, according to a report by RadioTelevisión Canaria released this week.
Yordanka Sarmiento, secretary of the Association of Cubans in Gran Canaria, is the main voice of the report and leaves no doubt about the seriousness of what is happening on the island: "The situation there is serious, chronic, and cyclical. Change is the only escape left at this extreme moment the Caribbean country is experiencing."
Sarmiento describes a town worn out and hopeless under the system that has governed it for more than six decades: "Suffering, desperate, and any option for change is acceptable—anyone."
His words point to a deep rupture with the official discourse of the regime, which for decades has placed national sovereignty above individual needs: "Cubans have already lost that which was taught to us or instilled in us—that sovereignty, that the homeland is above all. What Cubans want is to live."
The statements come days after the UN and the WHO issued an alert about the humanitarian crisis in Cuba, worsened by power outages that in some areas last up to 20 hours a day.
According to international organizations, over 100,000 patients —including more than 11,000 children— are awaiting postponed surgeries due to the lack of electricity and supplies, while around five million people with chronic illnesses are experiencing interruptions in their treatments.
The alert was issued last Saturday by Edem Wosornu from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Altaf Musani from the World Health Organization, following a three-day mission to the island.
The Cuban community in the Canary Islands has not remained passive in the face of the deteriorating situation. On March 29, Cubans residing in Tenerife gathered in Plaza de España in Santa Cruz under the slogan "Freedom is this year" and chants such as "If Cuba is in the streets, we are too," denouncing power outages, food shortages, and lack of medicine.
The Government of Canary Islands has also acted in response to the emergency: approved the shipment of 75 tons of canned chicken to Villa Clara, one of the hardest-hit provinces, where in February 2026 the sale of regulated bread was restricted only to minors under 13 and seniors over 65.
The Cuban exodus to Spain has continued to grow. In 2023, the number of Cubans naturalized as Spanish citizens in the Canary Islands doubled compared to the previous year, and at least 27,000 Cubans registered in Spain in 2025, bringing the total number of Cuban residents in the country to over 160,000. Since 2021, more than a million people have left the island.
The phrase by Casarmiento encapsulates the sentiment of a diaspora that no longer expects solutions from the regime: "What Cubans want is to live."
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