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The announcement by Miguel Díaz-Canel that Pinar del Río will be the venue for the National Central Act on July 26 unleashed a wave of outrage on social media.
In his account on X, the president congratulated the "noble and hardworking people" of the province and highlighted Matanzas, Villa Clara, Guantánamo, and Sancti Spíritus as exemplary territories, but the response from the Cubans was a torrent of anger and desperation.
The contrast between the festive tone of the ruler and the reality faced by Cubans was evident in the comments below the tweet.
While Díaz-Canel talked about celebration, internet users were reporting blackouts lasting between 40 and 50 consecutive hours, food shortages, lack of medications, and streets flooded with garbage.
"The people have been without electricity for 48, 50 hours, without food, without sleep. This is so you wouldn’t talk about anything else until the issue is resolved. And when I say resolve the issue, I mean that everyone should resign," wrote a user.
Another comment summed up the widespread outrage: "Pinar del Río in ruins like the rest of the country, without electricity, without food, and without a future."
Several internet users also pointed to the limited impact of the tweet as evidence of the regime's lack of legitimacy. "All that Soviet propaganda is so ridiculous that it shows in the fact that 8 hours after such an 'important' post, there are less than 500 likes," wrote one of them.
"That town literally dying of hunger, disease, and poor sanitation, and you're talking about a communist celebration," remarked a user.
"A country with a deficit of over 2200. What happens is that all of you live well, with electricity, food, everything... It’s clear that you’re not even experiencing what the people are going through," another person recalled.
"The mango is barking. 40 hours without power and they’re still thinking about the damn slogans of the fucking revolution. They’re good for nothing," declared a third person.
One of the comments on the president's tweet said goodbye with a phrase that captures the mood of many Cubans: "Blah, blah, blah. We're suffocating, enough with the talk. We're in a slow death."
Pinar del Río hosts the central event of July 26 for the third time in its history since 1959; the last occurrence was in 2001. This year, the official campaign is "My Moncada is the homeland."
The irony of the announcement did not go unnoticed by those who pointed out the gap between the official narrative and the actual data from the province.
Pinar del Río still has more than 40,000 families waiting for housing, and of the 102,288 damages caused by Hurricane Ian in September 2022, only 63% had been resolved by April 2026. The first secretary of the Communist Party in the province, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, admitted in June that "there are families who have been without housing for 30 years, generation after generation."
The energy crisis further worsens the situation. The Cuban electrical system operates with a deficit of between 1,780 and 2,215 MW, experiencing blackouts that exceed 26 hours daily in some areas and simultaneously affect over 60% of the country.
On June 13, Pinar del Río recorded a historic temperature of 37.6°C amidst power outages. The case of a father who posted a photo of his daughter sleeping on the tiled floor in search of the coolness that electricity could not provide became a symbol of that crisis, accompanied by the question: "Is this humane? Is this communism?"
The announcement comes amid the skepticism generated by the package of 176 economic reforms presented by Díaz-Canel, which triggered protests with pots and pans in Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara, and Havana.
The Cuban economy has contracted by between 15% and 23% since 2019, the dollar has surpassed 600 pesos in the informal market, and more than one million Cubans have left the island since 2021.
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