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While the Cuban regime promotes new figures as representatives of a generation open to change, two of the most well-known young leaders of the opposition movement remain imprisoned for publicly advocating political transformations in the country.
The contradiction was pointed out this Saturday by Cuban journalist Norges Rodríguez in a thread published on the social network X, regarding the first public interview given by Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" and grandson of Raúl Castro, to the Emirati newspaper The National.
According to Rodríguez, the journalist from the United Arab Emirates insisted on presenting the interviewees as representatives of a new Cuban generation. "He emphasized that they were young and the face of a Cuban generation that wants to open up to the world," he wrote.
The interview featured Rodríguez Castro, 42 years old, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez, 38. For Norges, the selection of both aimed at a clear objective: to present "young faces willing to embrace change."
However, he pointed out another piece of information that he finds revealing. "Those who are also 42 and 38 years old are Maykel 'Osorbo' Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, respectively," he recalled.
Both artists and activists have been imprisoned since 2021 after becoming some of the most visible figures in the anti-government protests and the San Isidro Movement.
For Norges, the comparison reveals two completely different realities within the same generation of Cubans. While some are presented to the international community as valid interlocutors to promote economic changes, others remain imprisoned for demanding political transformations and fundamental freedoms.
"Both have been in prison since 2021 for leading a movement that essentially called for an end to the state of servitude that the Cuban people have been subjected to for nearly 70 years," Norges stated.
The journalist also recalled the role played by Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo in the cultural and political phenomenon that accompanied the protests on July 11, 2021.
"Otero and Castillo were the faces of Patria y Vida, the anthem of the 2021 rebellion. The plantation owners did not forgive them," he wrote.
The reflection concludes with a political reading on the future of political prisoners in Cuba and the potential negotiations between Havana and Washington.
"Today both are in prison, and the regime is holding them, along with the other political prisoners, as bargaining chips in a possible negotiation with the U.S.," he stated.
The comparison made by Norges Rodríguez highlights an uncomfortable question for the Cuban authorities.
If the regime claims to support a new generation open to the world and change, why are some of the young people who publicly demanded those transformations still behind bars?
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