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The troubadour Raúl Torres posted another piece of revolutionary "lyricism" on Facebook yesterday, in which he defends the Cuban regime against accusations of corruption with his usual blend of Marxist rhetoric, unbearable metaphors, and patriotic trench slogans.
The central thesis of the troubadour, presented with the solemnity of a historical decree, is that "in Cuba, those in power do not become wealthy," a statement that Torres does not hesitate to describe as a "historical fact" and which, according to him, imperialism "cannot bear or comprehend because its soul is rotten from surplus value."
The rest of the text follows the same poetic architecture of barricade: the accusations of corruption are "newly fabricated charges," part of "the crudest psychological warfare," concocted in "the laboratories of disinformation, in the troll farms financed by NED and USAID, those agencies that turn lies into a high-return political investment."
For Torres, the question about the regime's corruption deserves a rhetorical response of anthology: "What is the supposed 'corruption'? Is it fighting to uphold universal and free education amid blackouts? Is it trying to maintain the public health system as a global beacon without even having full access to basic supplies?"
One of the most "sublime" segments of the text is the one that illustrates the "humility of the revolutionary government," making a forced comparison between this supposed quality and the sacrifice of the "doctor who crosses a hurricane on a mule to vaccinate a child in the mountains of the East," a maneuver worthy of the best manipulator.
The reality that the troubadour omits in his trench lyrical is, however, much less poetic. According to the National Food Security Survey 2025 from the Food Monitor Program, 33.9% of Cuban households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in the past month, compared to 24.6% in 2024; and 47.59% of households lost refrigerated food due to power outages, a figure that exceeded 80% in some provinces.
The electric generation deficit has exceeded 2,000 MW several times in 2026 so far, with daily outages exceeding 20-24 hours and repeated total nationwide blackouts, while a decline in Cuba's GDP for this year could exceed 6%, according to the most optimistic forecasts.
Regarding the corruption that Torres so eloquently denies, there are plenty of cases to prove otherwise, from the privileged lifestyle of the Castro family to the dismissals of high-ranking figures in the regime —such as former Prime Minister Alejandro Gil, now sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years— due to scandals that involve corrupt practices.
In 2024 Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo was dismissed amid investigations for alleged corruption, currency trafficking, and tax fraud involving his brother.
The military conglomerate GAESA, which the Real Instituto Elcano describes as being effectively controlled by the Castro family and loyal oligarchs with little to no public oversight, dominates tourism, foreign trade, ports, and the country's finances. Meanwhile, a 2025 report indicated that Cuba allocated more than 37% of all its investment to the tourism and hotel sector, precisely benefiting GAESA, FINCIMEX, and CIMEX.
While the military leadership enriches itself, the dedicated teachers that Torres invokes as emblems of the revolution also face their own tragic reality. In August 2025, the schools in Matanzas began the school year with a deficit of more than two thousand teachers, and the exodus of doctors and educators is massive across the country.
It is not the first time that Torres wields the pen in service of the regime. His pamphleteering cries in defense of the system that oppresses the Island have been repeated in recent years. In 2021, he released "Patria o Muerte por la Vida" as an official response to the dissenting anthem "Patria y Vida," which led the singer Descemer Bueno to call him "the dictator's fool", a title that the troubadour bears with the same dignity that, according to him, eternally caresses the breeze of the Malecón.
The official troubadour concludes his text with the certainty that "even the most hateful ones know that all this is the pure truth," while the Cubans, those giants of consciousness that he celebrates, continue to escape as they can and emigrate in record numbers. In 2025, they led the migratory flow through Honduras towards the United States, with 21,617 entries in seven months according to the International Organization for Migration.
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