With the death of Ramiro Valdés Menéndez this Sunday at the age of 94, as the Cuban regime bids him farewell with official honors, one of the most significant moments of popular rejection he faced during his lifetime resurfaces: on July 11, 2021, a crowd in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, shouted "murderer" to his face while he walked among the protesters surrounded by soldiers.
The incident was recorded in a video published by the independent media outlet Diario de Cuba three days after the protests. The images clearly show the then Vice President of the State Council moving through the crowd of Cubans who had taken to the streets on that historic Sunday.
"Assassin, you are killing us with hunger," a voice can be heard shouting in the video, while the crowd also chanted, "They beat us!" in reference to the police repression that had already erupted against the protesters.
As Valdés was leaving the place, the crowd began to chant "Freedom," the slogan that resonated that day in dozens of municipalities across the island.
Palma Soriano was the second Cuban locality to join the protests of 11J, just hours after San Antonio de los Baños ignited the spark. Riot officers violently suppressed the hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Santiago municipality.
The regime attempted to immediately reverse the narrative. The government program coordinator in the province, Gilberto Romero Sauder, stated that Valdés "as soon as he burst onto the scene in his glorious olive green uniform was hailed by the people." According to his account, "as if by magic, it went from the vulgarities of a small group of leaders to the applause of the vast majority of people (undoubtedly many confused) who spontaneously shouted praises for Fidel, for Raúl, for Díaz-Canel, and of course for Commander Ramiro Valdés." The video published by Diario de Cuba contradicted that official version point by point.
What came next revealed even more about the regime's logic during those days: weeks later, Valdés awarded the "Distinguished Service" distinction to Lieutenant Julio César Sotomayor Lora and First Sergeant Felipe Aparicio Santiesteban, presented by the official newspaper Granma as agents who acted in the "confrontation" during the events of July 11 in Palma Soriano. In other words, he rewarded those who repressed the demonstrators.
The scene in Palma Soriano was not an isolated incident. That same Sunday, in San Antonio de los Baños, several Cubans threw objects and insults at the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel during his visit to the area, although the state media also concealed those images and praised the reception of the leader.
On July 11th, 2021, it became the largest outburst of popular protests in Cuba since 1994. Amnesty International documented hundreds of arbitrary detentions during the days and weeks that followed, and the United States Government indicated that nearly 700 people remained detained years later for their involvement in the protests.
Now, with the death of Valdés confirmed this Sunday by Díaz-Canel on his official X account — where he wrote that "the physical departure of the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez is deeply painful" — and with the MININT bidding farewell to him as one of its founders, many Cubans remember not the official honors, but that collective shout in Palma Soriano: the voice of a people who, for a moment, told him to his face what they thought.
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