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The Cuban priest Alberto Reyes Pías, parish priest of Esmeralda, Camagüey, published this Friday the 161st installment of his weekly column "I've Been Thinking" on Facebook, with a powerful reflection on living conditions in Cuba titled "I've Been Thinking About the Options That We Have Left I".
The priest's starting point is a straightforward statement: "Cuba needs a change, and a radical change. We cannot continue like this."
Reyes describes how, "by force," a situation similar to that of a country at war has become normalized in Cuba, and warns that the human body can endure such a situation temporarily, "but not forever, because it breaks, both the body and the spirit fracture."
From that point on, the priest lays out a list of conditions he rejects as acceptable: living with two hours of electricity a day, waking up at dawn when they "turn the lights on" to wash and cook, watching food spoil, and doing everything "with the constant fear that there won't be enough time."
It also denounces the lack of running water, telephone service, and minimal internet coverage, which leaves Cubans "isolated even within their own village."
Regarding the economy, it highlights the "gaping difference" between what a worker receives and the cost of living, "the impossibility of obtaining cash from the banks, and the injustice of being paid in Cuban pesos while charges are at a dollar and first-world level."
The healthcare collapse occupies a central place in his text: "It cannot be normal that there are no medications, that for a surgical intervention you have to bring your own suture thread, that there are no reagents and professionals have to make a judgment 'by eye', that infant mortality skyrockets, that there is no electricity in hospitals, that operating rooms are dilapidated spaces."
This reality is supported by documented figures. that the energy crisis has a "systemic and growing" impact on essential services, with over 96,000 postponed surgeries, 32,000 at-risk pregnancies, and nearly half a million children experiencing reduced school hours.
Cuba closed 2025 with an infant mortality rate of 9.9 per 1,000 live births, compared to 7.4 in 2024 and 3.9 in 2018. In April 2026, only 190 out of 651 essential medications were available.
In terms of electricity, Cuba recorded a record deficit of over 2,100 MW in May 2026, with nearly 70% of the country without electricity simultaneously. In provinces like Granma, reports indicated circuits experiencing over 45 consecutive hours without service at the beginning of June. The national electrical system collapsed completely on March 16, 2026.
Reyes, one of the most consistent critical voices of the Catholic Church in Cuba, has been denouncing the political, economic, and moral situation on the island for over 160 installments. In previous installments from 2026, he referred to the permanence in power as a form of "arrogance" and "crimes against humanity," and in May he reflected on whether military intervention could be considered by some Cubans given the extreme deterioration of living conditions.
Delivery 161 marks the beginning of a series on the options available to the Cuban people, and concludes with an open-ended question posed by the priest: "What options do we have to get out of all this? Because it doesn’t seem like the solutions will come from those who govern us. What options do we have? We will need to think about it."
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