The Cuban popular poet José Martínez, based in Miami, published a new poem titled "Crab Poison" on July 3rd, directed specifically at Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" and the grandson of Raúl Castro, in response to his recent public appearances as a supposed negotiator between Havana and Washington.
The immediate trigger was the second interview that Raúl Guillermo gave to the newspaper USA Today on July 6, where he offered to negotiate directly with Donald Trump and conditioned the release of political prisoners on "appropriate conditions."
Martínez quickly responded with verses that strike at the heart of the Cuban community's indignation: "How is it that they try to shove a crab in your face? Is the people so foolish that they accept this humiliation?"
The poem denounces that Raúl Guillermo acts without any official position or democratic legitimacy, yet he seeks to establish himself as a figure of power: "Without any institution, without holding any office, he comes to give you the bitter poison of truth."
Among the truths that Martínez lists in his décimas is the instrumental use of political prisoners: "That there was never dignity, that there are indeed innocent prisoners, that they will use those brave individuals to demand conditions."
The piece also directly points to the enrichment of the regime's upper echelons: "They have used the millions of dollars for their luxuries, and we are faced with a scoundrel who dreams of being president."
The poem concludes with a warning that links the present to the history of the dictatorship: "Because an unabashed power has already been seen in the past as it massacres people."
The public emergence of "El Cangrejo" began on June 19, when it gave its first interview to The National, defending the package of 176 economic reforms approved by the Communist Party.
In just three weeks, the colonel from the Ministry of the Interior —the head of his grandfather's personal security since 2016— went from being an opaque figure to becoming the visible face of the Cuba-US negotiations, without any official position to support him.
The organization Prisoners Defenders reports more than 1,200 political prisoners in Cuba, a figure that makes Raúl Guillermo's statement about Cuba possibly releasing them "under the appropriate conditions" particularly serious.
"Crab Venom" is Martínez's latest response in a series of political satires that he has been publishing throughout 2026.
On June 22, his poem "La vaselina" —also directed at "El Cangrejo"— surpassed 13,700 likes and 1,400 shares on Facebook, establishing the critical framework that "Veneno de cangrejo" delves into.
The new reel has accumulated 22,740 views, 1,202 likes, and 61 comments on Facebook since its release, reflecting the resonance that these pieces have among Cubans both on the island and abroad.
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