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The Cuban-American Republican congressman Carlos Giménez posted this Thursday a message on X under the hashtag #SOSCuba in which he urged to maintain pressure on the Cuban regime and to support the people of the island in their struggle for freedom.
"We need to keep the pressure on the brutal regime in Cuba and help the Cuban people in their fight for freedom," wrote the legislator from Florida, accompanying the text with a video in which he starkly described the current situation on the island.
Giménez used the recent statement by President Donald Trump, who described Cuba as "a failed nation" that "is only going in one direction: downward," as a starting point to argue that international pressure must continue until real change occurs.
"Every night there are protests. There is no light in Cuba. If you look at nighttime satellite images, you see some lights in Havana and that's it; the rest of the island is in darkness," said the congressman, in a description that aligns with what has been documented by international media following successive total blackouts of the national electrical system.
The legislator enumerated the shortages that exhaust the population: scarcity of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity. "People are fed up. They want freedom, they want change," he noted.
Regarding the regime's prospects, Giménez was straightforward: "This regime will not disappear on its own, but I believe there will be significant internal pressure for change, and I think we just need to keep doing what we are doing in terms of applying pressure on the regime for that change to happen."
The message arrives at the peak of an unprecedented energy crisis in Cuba, with record electric deficits of up to 2,153 MW reported by the Electric Union in May 2026.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted to power outages lasting 20 to 22 hours daily in some circuits and described the situation as "acute, critical," and "extremely tense."
Protests have also multiplied. Between May 12 and May 18, Cubans took to the streets in several municipalities of Havana with pot-banging, bonfires, and street blockades, chanting slogans such as "Down with the dictatorship!" and demands for "electricity and food."
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,245 protests in March 2026, the highest monthly figure since July 11, 2021, and 1,133 in April, a 29.5% increase compared to the same month last year.
Giménez has maintained a stance of maximum pressure throughout 2026, aligned with the Trump administration. In March, heproposed a total oil embargo and the cutting off of financial flows, and in April, hewarned that regime leaders could face judicial consequences similar to those experienced by other authoritarian rulers in the region.
The congressman has defined his commitment to the freedom of Cuba as "the work of my life" and has reiterated that there will be no U.S. investment in the island without significant political changes.
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