The popular Cuban poet José Martínez published a new satirical poem on his social media titled “Vaseline”, which has already surpassed 13,700 likes and 1,400 shares on Facebook.
The 58-second video features Martínez wearing his characteristic straw hat and blue denim shirt. The piece opens with a question that says it all: "Can a crab speak?", a direct reference to the nickname of Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl Castro, who granted his first public interview to The National on June 19, just three days prior.
The poem ironically describes the mechanism of political advancement within the regime: how one "greases the wheels" to gradually place a figure in positions of power, without the people noticing until it is too late.
"How they know how to prepare the people for the heist, / it's a cunning style that runs smoothly in Cuba, / they start applying the grease," recites Martínez, before detailing the process: appearance in photos and videos, subtle rise, mention of the "commander," inauguration of centers, presidency of meetings, and finally the moment when the character "from the outside came inside."
The reference to GAESA, the military business conglomerate of the regime that was sanctioned by the Trump administration on May 7 under Executive Order 14404, is explicit from the very first verses: "after GAESA, / nothing will impress you."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that GAESA controls assets worth between 18 billion and 20 billion dollars outside of public audit, a scandal that dominated the Cuban political debate during May and June.
Raúl Guillermo, 41 years old, is a colonel in the Ministry of Interior and has been the head of his grandfather's personal security since 2016. Although he does not hold an official position in the government, he serves as an informal channel between Havana and Washington, and last May he met with the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, during his visit to Cuba.
In his interview with The National, he stated that "Cuba does not pose the slightest threat to the interests or national security of the United States," and admitted that negotiations with Washington have not yielded concrete results: "I would like to answer yes to that question, but the reality is no."
"La vaselina" joins a prolific series of viral poems that Martínez has published throughout 2026, always in direct response to current political events.
On June 15, he published “No one flees to communism”, which garnered nearly 20,000 views. On May 22, he drew attention to Raúl Castro's criminal proceedings using the methods employed in Villa Marista. And in April, he released “I do not sign”, in opposition to the “My signature for the Homeland” campaign by the Communist Party.
Martínez, a Cuban psychologist and entrepreneur based in Miami, combines décimas and popular strophic forms with dark humor and irony, establishing himself as one of the most followed satirical voices of the Cuban diaspora on social media.
The poem concludes with a line that encapsulates the central thesis of the piece: "and when you opened your eyes, / from the outside it moved to the inside," referencing Raúl Guillermo's role as a bridge between the regime's leadership and the Trump administration during a time of heightened tensions between Havana and Washington.
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