A Cuban resident in Las Vegas, known on TikTok as @rdlasvegas, posted a video that sparked a debate within the Cuban exile community last Sunday with a direct and uncompromising message: Cuba will not be free because it is a business controlled by very powerful interests, and those who expect Donald Trump to change that are being manipulated.
"What I'm going to say may not be pleasant, but it's the plain truth, and some Cubans, like a couple of you, know I had to say it," the creator begins in the two-minute clip, before presenting his main thesis: "Cuba has an owner, and it's a very powerful owner, gentlemen; investigate, reason to understand why there have been sixty-seven years of dictatorship in Cuba."
The argument of the Cuban in Las Vegas does not solely point to the Castros as the ones responsible for the status quo, but rather to a structure of economic and political interests that, according to him, benefits from keeping the island under that system.
As evidence, it points to an irrefutable fact: in over 67 years, no U.S. government has taken the definitive step. "They have never closed flights to Cuba, they have never closed the thousands of shipping agencies, gentlemen," he asserts, concluding that this omission is not coincidental.
Regarding Trump, the creator is explicit: “I’m not sure what I’m saying, but I’m ninety percent sure that Donald Trump is not going to do anything at all,” just like his predecessors didn’t.
"Be aware that they are manipulating you to keep wasting time, and as sixty more years go by, they will still be saying that now is the time," he warns.
The video comes days after the Trump administration announced a new round of sanctions against the regime's top officials. On June 5, the Treasury Department sanctioned Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife Lis Cuesta, his stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta, and Alejandro Castro Espín, among other bodies, in what analysts describe as an attempt to provoke a regime change.
But for the creator of the video, these measures are insufficient in light of the structure that supports the regime. The argument ties into a debate that has been circulating in the diaspora for years: congressmen from South Florida formally requested in January the suspension of flights and remittances, yet flights and agencies continue to operate.
This skepticism is also echoed in research by the mayor of Hialeah, Brian Calvo, who announced in April that more than 200 businesses in his city were under investigation for alleged money laundering for the regime, or in the allegations by artist Yotuel about European hotel chains that operate dozens of hotels in Cuba financing the dictatorship.
The creator makes it clear that his skepticism is not indifference: "I want Cuba to be free, I say down with the dictatorship, down with the Castros and freedom for political prisoners, but understand that we are cursed."
His message contrasts with voices like that of the artist La Dura, who in May published that Cuba was "on the verge of liberation", reflecting the deep division of expectations within the diaspora.
"Everything aligns, everything works for someone, think about that and then we can talk," concludes the Cuban from Las Vegas, leaving open a question that the Cuban community has been unable to answer for decades.
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