The singers Boni y Kelly created a highly impactful moment on social media by speaking out frankly about the political situation in Cuba on the program "La Hora del Tiza," where they described the Havana government as a dictatorship, denounced the repression of the people, and called for free elections.
In a video published on Facebook, El Boni addressed his words directly to Cuban artists who avoid speaking out when asked about the Havana regime.
"This is for all the artists who, when asked a political question, wet their pants; they are cowards," he stated.
The message was clear: "You are Cuban, and if you are asked a political question, you must answer. (...) You have to say that there is a dictatorship in Cuba, you have to say that people are dying of hunger in Cuba, or that the people are being repressed."
Ebblis expressed his desire for a change in the system: "I want there to be free elections, I want to choose a president." He added a thought that encapsulates his democratic stance: "If one day the entire people choose communism, I've had it; it's communism, but it was chosen by the people."
"What cannot happen is that these people are there massacring, killing the people with hunger, and with the same old story. No one believes them anymore."
The artists acknowledged the contradiction of speaking from the comfort of exile: "We all live here fine, it’s them over there. Our people, who are the ones suffering, some of them are already out on the streets," said Boni.
Kelly, for her part, expressed her hope that the dictatorship will fall this year and conveyed her desire to return to her homeland when that happens.
"I want to buy a little piece of land, build my big cabin in my free country, enjoy my Cuba, invest, and let my children know my homeland," he detailed.
The positioning of Boni and Kelly carries a particular biographical weight. In 2014, the regime accused them of desertion after traveling to Panama to open a charity concert alongside figures like Shakira, Juan Luis Guerra, and Rubén Blades. The state-owned Cuban company canceled their return flight and declared them "deserters who had betrayed the public." Since then, they have lived in the Dominican Republic and Spain before settling in Miami.
El Boni recalled in a previous interview that his mother "went every day to the Ministry of Culture and the Institute of Music, they mistreated her, treated her badly, and humiliated her," without managing to bring her children back.
The statements are part of a growing trend among Cuban artists in exile.
What sets Boni and Kelly's clip apart is that it not only condemns the regime but also directly calls out their colleagues in the artistic world, accusing them of cowardice for remaining silent when asked about Cuba.
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