A Cuban woman identified as Lumey Guzman posted a 33-second video on Facebook in which she harshly denounces the loss of the most basic rights on the island, a testimony that encapsulates in just a few words the reality faced by millions of Cubans amidst the worst energy and humanitarian crisis the country has experienced in decades.
"We live in a country where we had dreams, hope, and rights. Now we live in a place that cannot be called a country, where we have neither dreams, nor rights, nor hope," the woman says in front of the camera.
In just half a minute, Guzman lists the deprivations that have become commonplace: “We do not have the right to take a sip of cold water, we do not have the right to eat hot food, we do not have the right to shower with water that falls directly from the tap, we do not have the right to sleep with a fan, we do not have the right to anything.”
He concludes his complaint with a play on words that encapsulates the total absence of freedoms: "We are in a place that cannot be called a country, where we have no right, and the left doesn't have one either."
Each of the shortages mentioned has a direct cause: blackouts lasting up to 20 and 25 hours daily that affect large areas of Cuba in 2026. Without electricity, water pumps do not operate—which is why there is no water in the showers—food cannot be refrigerated or cooked, and fans are ineffective in the tropical heat.
The electricity deficit reached 1,885 MW in March and 1,848 MW in April, leaving more than 60% of the country without power. The Cuban Minister of Energy himself acknowledged this month that Cuba has no reserves of diesel or fuel oil to sustain the national electrical system. Many families have had to resort to firewood or coal for cooking.
Guzman's testimony is not an isolated case. A Cuban mother declared in March that "the Cuban no longer has any of what we once knew." In December 2025, another mother wrote that "as long as there is no electricity, my children will not go to school". In February 2026, Yatmara Bernal showed how she got up at four in the morning to do laundry when the electricity returned for a few hours.
The dimension of the crisis goes beyond everyday suffering. In May, the UN issued a to assist two million Cubans —approximately one in every five residents—. So far, only 32 million has been raised. More than 100,000 patients, including over 11,000 children, are waiting for surgeries postponed due to power outages.
Social exhaustion is also manifesting in the streets: over 1,100 protests were recorded in Cuba during April, an indicator of the level of desperation experienced by the population.
The viral testimonies of Cuban women like Lumey Guzman have become a form of resistance and civic documentation, resonating widely both inside and outside the island, against a regime that continues to fail to provide real solutions to a crisis worsened over decades by the deterioration of the economic and energy systems.
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