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The Havana chronicler Cesario Navas published a statement this Saturday from the Plaza de Armas in Havana, using the metaphor of blinkers to describe how Cuban leaders travel in luxurious, air-conditioned cars while refusing to acknowledge the collapse of the country.
"The blinders placed on horses! It's the favorite accessory used by the country’s leaders as they travel in their luxurious and secure cars through the streets of Havana and, of course, throughout the country," wrote Navas on his Facebook profile, while noting that he had been without internet in his neighborhood for a week, another example of the collapse he is denouncing.
Navas described officials who pretend to read books or talk on the phone to avoid looking around during the journey, oblivious to the rubble, the garbage, the lack of water, power outages, the scarcity of medicines, and the inflation that define the daily life of Cubans.
The criticism extends to journalists and officials of state media, whom he refers to as "halberdiers" who merely reproduce the party's rhetoric.
"For them, embarrassingly, everything is going well or on the path to excellence," he writes, concluding with a motto: "No more silence: we have a voice."
The deterioration reported by Navas is well-documented. The architect Ileana Pérez Drago warned recently that "the photos seen of Havana look like a bombed city, it seems like a war has taken place," and noted that around 1,000 buildings collapse each year in Havana.
The documentary photographer Alina Sardiñas summarized the situation in a devastating phrase after walking through the streets of Havana in May. "The trash heaps are not a temporary residue; they are the sediment of neglect that has become state policy," she stated.
The garbage crisis is one of the most visible symptoms. Havana generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste daily, but only 44 out of 106 collection trucks are operational due to a lack of diesel.
A viral video this month showed the garbage dump on Virtudes Street in Centro Habana unchanged nine months after it first went viral.
The contrast between the elite and the population has a history. On July 11, 2021, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel arrived in San Antonio de los Baños, the epicenter of the massive protests on 11J, escorted by a caravan of BMW and Audi cars, an image that became etched as a symbol of the disconnection from power.
The citizens who commented on Navas's post reinforce the diagnosis with their own words.
"They look the other way. The communicators repeat the scripts that are written for them. The internet is already another luxury. Like electricity. Like water. Like being able to feed oneself and get medical care with a salary or pension," wrote one person.
Another pointed directly to the root of the problem: "To destroy an entire country on a whim, when it was evident many years ago that the system was failing. And anyone who questioned or pointed anything out? They simply sent them to Plan Pijama."
A third voice addressed the official journalists: "Where are the journalists to inform the authorities that Havana is being destroyed amidst the trash and the broken sidewalks?"
The photographer Sardiñas provided the most powerful summary of this entire situation: "Cuba is not a romantic ruin, Cuba is what happens when you no longer matter."
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